Expected high demand in the used car market in early 2022 has prompted Startline Motor Finance to recruit additional staff.
Some 10 employees are being added to the company’s origination team based at its Glasgow headquarters to handle the increased levels of business.
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“We normally see a bump in demand during January and are expecting this to be a strong month accompanied by a strong Q1, so we want to have the people in place needed to handle demand from dealers and other motor finance introducers,” said Paul Burgess, chief executive of Startline.
“The used car market has remained buoyant during 2021 and we have continued to see growth as a result. We have supported this by gradually increasing our employee numbers and are now up to around 160 people in total.”
Burgess said that Startline expected the general economy next year to be potentially quite volatile but demand for motor finance to be robust.
“There is a good chance that early next year, we will see a range of factors negatively affecting the economy, including materials and labour shortages, the end of furloughing, and the ongoing upheaval resulting from both Brexit and the pandemic.
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By GlobalData“However, we are confident in the resilience of the used car market. While we expect values to finally stabilise, stock will remain in short supply and consumers appear to have an ongoing appetite to keep buying.”
Earlier this year, Startline launched a data insight tool to help dealers gain a better understanding of the finance deals they are processing.
Insights works by making information available online to dealers, including advice on management and decisions.
“Currently, like most motor finance companies, we don’t really provide the means for dealers and introducers to dig down into the motor finance business that they write with us but Insights changes that in a very emphatic way,” said Burgess.
