Tag Archive for: Acquisition

WestWon Buys 42% of Fit Out Finance

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WestWon are pleased to announce that it has acquired 42% share capital of Business Funding Portal Limited. The main trading style of the company is Fit Out Finance, a specialist leasing broker working in the furniture and fit out sector.

Fit Out Finance is a perfect fit for the existing WestWon furniture and fit out division, working with organisations that either renovate existing buildings or look to relocate to new premises. The business has been trading for 10 years and the current team headed up by the CEO Mark Jones, will all stay with the company.

Fit Out Finance Website and Domain Name

The main attraction for WestWon was the domain name www.fitoutfinance.co.uk. “It is completely clear what we do” notes Mark Jones. He added, “Every week we receive business opportunities directly via the internet. We believe that the brand can be developed further, maintaining our focus on leasing and financing of building renovation and premises move fit out projects in the UK. We are looking forward to joining the WestWon family of companies where we will be sharing infrastructure, marketing, financial and regulatory resources. The fit with WestWon makes perfect sense as they already have a strong footprint in the office furniture leasing sector. Jeremy and I have known each other for twenty plus years, he has even bought the customer base of a previous company I had many years ago called Public Sector Finance.”

Fit Out Finance and WestWon

Speaking on behalf of WestWon, CEO Jeremy Hall noted, “It will be business as normal for Fit Out Finance. Mark will still hold 58% of the equity, he will still be in charge of the day to day operations and the company will maintain its trading style and website. We will be implementing some immediate changes; remodelling the company logo and colour scheme to follow in the style of WestWon branding and implementing the WestWon CRM system. This is not an acquisition or a merger, it is important that we keep Mark and give him the ability and flexibility to grow the business.”

Fit Out Finance  in the UK

Leasing of office furniture and associated fit out costs is a big market in the UK. Office moves still count as one of the most expensive investments many companies make. Amortising the cost of an office move via a lease makes perfect sense. The general view is this sector is not set for growth over the next few years in the UK as we come to terms with the affects of BREXIT. However, by pooling the resources of Fit Out Finance and WestWon we hope to have a larger market share.

For more information, please contact either Mark Jones or Jeremy Hall at WestWon. Call us on 01494 611 456.

 

WestWon Acquires the Customer Bases of Corporate Computer Lease PLC (CCL) and Smart Fund IT

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Press Release

18th October 2017, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

Corporate Computer Lease PLC was a big name in computer and software leasing. Alongside Wyse Leasing, Syscap and Genesis Capital, they were one of the best known tech leasing companies. Sadly, along with their new leasing company, Smart Fund IT, they went out of business back in 2009.

Since then, finance companies such as ING, Bank of Scotland, Siemens, Grenke and Universal Leasing have been collecting from their CCL lease portfolio. With the receivers having now wound down the administration, it has left a customer base of companies who have leased in the past.

Earlier this month, WestWon acquired this customer base from the company working on behalf of the receiver, adding another 500 plus lease clients to their ever-growing portfolio.

Speaking on behalf of WestWon, CEO Jeremy Hall noted, “CCL were a great competitor to us at Wyse Leasing for a number of years. They were a well-run company that had some fantastic supplier relationships, especially in the software leasing sector. No one would have expected, or even wanted them to fail. After the administrator had completed their job and all these customers have paid their rentals, the only thing left is a list of companies. A highly valuable source of information, our task will be to analyse all these companies and speak to them about their future leasing needs.”

Most of the customers were SME’s, with a combined lease value of £36m. 75% of the contacts were for software leasing and computer leasing. Circa 8% of the portfolio is for the leasing of vehicle tracking devices and the next most popular class of leasing was telecommunications equipment.

This is the third portfolio acquisition within a year for WestWon, following Tech5 and Broughfame. Clearly, if you are looking to sell your leasing company then WestWon would be a good place to start.

 

For more information, call WestWon on 01494 611 456.

 

WestWon Acquires Broughfame Limited

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Press Release 

10th October 2017, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

WestWon has made its first major acquisition in 2017, purchasing a leasing broker based in Staffordshire. Broughfame has been trading for 17 years and over that time has written 2,400 lease agreements for over 1,700 customers.

The lease portfolio is mostly made up of small SME customers, with 60% of those companies being sole traders or partnerships. There is a high concentration of coffee equipment agreements, however, there are numerous other deals included, from a horse box to a commercial mortgage.

WestWon has a clear strategy of acquiring other leasing companies in the UK and this is the second acquisition within a year. In November 2016, WestWon acquired the customer base and goodwill of Tech 5, a leasing company with an £88m portfolio of leases for turf care equipment. Interestingly, the Broughfame portfolio was just over £12m of leases, increasing the size of our own lease portfolio by over £100m within the year.

Speaking on behalf of WestWon, Jeremy Hall the company CEO stated, “We are pleased to welcome Karen White, who has been running Broughfame for the last ten years. She brings with her a wealth of experience, mostly in the coffee equipment leasing sector. This market is expected to grow from £5bn a year in the UK to £8bn over the next few years. Clearly, more coffee machines will be leased. The historic customer base is also changing from what was mostly coffee shops, pubs and social clubs to your average company that just wants to serve good coffee to its clients and employees. We were particularly interested in the customer base, which we will be transferring into the main WestWon portfolio. There are also a number of long term loyal supplier relationships which we will look to nurture over the years ahead.”

Karen White, the CEO of Broughfame noted, “This is an exciting time for us. WestWon are able to significantly improve how we deliver our customer services to both our existing customer and supplier relationships. Their home-grown CRM system, is by far the best I have seen in a leasing broker. We will enable our suppliers to have access to all their deals and customer information. With the assistance of the WestWon marketing team, we will be building a dedicated website specifically for the coffee equipment leasing sector.”

If you are a Broughfame customer or supplier, please expect a call from a member of our team soon.

For more information, call Karen White on 01494 611 456.

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