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Print.IT Reseller
Green finance deal
To date, the Carbon Trust has helped
over 35,000 customers introduce
£1.6bn worth of energy efficient
equipment into their businesses,
resulting in a £3.7bn reduction in
energy costs.
A joint partnership between the Carbon
Trust (www.carbontrust.com) and Siemens
Financial Services (www.siemens.co.uk)
launched in April last year is providing UK
businesses with green equipment finance
worth up to £550 million over the next three
years.
Siemens Financial Services has extensive
experience of asset financing and lending to
UK business and is particularly successful in
the SME sector. This dedicated low carbon
finance scheme was designed to boost green
growth and unlock business investment in
the low carbon economy – key to the UK’s
recovery – and is enabling UK businesses,
around 4,500 to date, to invest in cost
effective energy efficiency equipment or
other low carbon technologies, such as new
efficient lighting and biomass heating.
Siemens provides the financing and
manages the provision of the funding,
while the Carbon Trust uses its experience
of managing energy efficiency projects to
assess the carbon, energy and cost savings
of loan applications in order to ensure that
the financing pays for itself through reduced
energy bills.
Procurement support is available to
businesses wishing to purchase energy
efficiency equipment at scale from a
network of accredited suppliers and for
small to medium-sized businesses in Wales
and Northern Ireland wishing to introduce
energy-saving equipment, 0% interest loans
are available.
finance
www.printitreseller.co.uk
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“More businesses seem to prefer leasing
over outright purchase, due to the tax
benefits and improved cash flow. In Toshiba
TEC we’ve shown a 30% year on year
increase in unit sales. However, the street
prices of MFPs has dropped over the last
few years due to increased competition and
aggressively priced framework agreements
such as GPS, therefore it could be that the
amount of capital being financed has gone
down.
Carl Day, Sales
Director Indirect
Division, Toshiba
Tec UK Imaging
Systems
Matt Goodall,
Service Director,
Office Evolution
Asset finance
lenders expect
modest growth in
new business over the
next twelve months
in all of the finance
channels – broker,
vendor and direct.
“
”
“We have also seen a big shift in the
sales approach from the channel, to a more
audit-based consultative sale, which has
delivered a more balanced deployment of
product. Traditionally all print devices were
replaced with copier-based MFPs, but with
the development and ease of modern print
audit and accounting software we’ve seen
a ‘hybrid’ offering to the client offering a
strategic mix of printers and MFPs. This again
will result in a lower hardware cost being
financed.”
“I can’t
recall one
occasion
when we’ve
had to walk
away from a
deal because
we couldn’t
put a lease
agreement
in place.”
“More
businesses
seem to
prefer
leasing over
outright
purchase,
due to
the tax
benefits and
improved
cash flow.”
Business is still growing
Trowbridge-based Office Evolution
Ltd (www.officeevolution.co.uk) is an
authorised supplier of the Develop range of
Ineo copiers and printers and also provides
Toshiba, Utax and Brother products.
Service Director Matt Goodall says
that whilst leasing companies are taking
financial risk assessment more seriously,
in the main this hasn’t adversely impacted
on the business. “We are still seeing a
steady flow of companies who wish to buy
office equipment and we expect to record
a double-digit increase in both turnover
and profit at the end of this financial year.
Although the rate of increase has slowed
slightly, our business is still growing.
“I can’t recall one occasion when
we’ve had to walk away from a deal
because we couldn’t put a lease
agreement in place. We work with a lender
who pre-approves applications online and
fast, so we always know that the deal will
go through in advance.
“Some finance houses who choose
to lend to businesses that are perceived
to be higher risk do so at a cost and
we have had potential customers who
decided against committing, primarily
because the cost of finance was too high.
“There are a number of specialist
lenders who will help secure finance for
less clear cut cases and we have worked
with one in particular, who adopts a
rather old-fashioned (but personal)
approach that includes a face to face
meeting as part of the evaluation process.
Working with DSales we are also able
to finalise deals through their leasing
partner.”