There once was a terrible pop band that wrote terrible pop songs. They did, however, churn out one line of sulky wisdom: Girls don’t like boys, girls like cars and money.
Handily, this covers both topics I write about. Or, at least, that’s what I tell women.
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So what do boys like? Bikes and guitars. Or, at least, that’s what George Miller of Moneyway and I like.
I interviewed George, along with his colleague Andy McMorine and David Nield of Secure Trust Bank, for May’s issue of Motor Finance. One of the good bits that got chopped out, being not about motor finance, was George and I talking away on a tangent about pedals, both cleat and distortion.
Now, Moneyway is the biggest finance supplier for musical instruments and, as a former member of an indie band that got nowhere, I was keen to understand how that fits into the company’s model. It is also the biggest financer of bicycles and, as a commuter cyclist who arrives at work each morning with one trouser leg rolled up, sweaty, and marked with chain grease, looking like the last refugee from a freemason’s stag do, please allow me an opportunity to rattle on about my personal interest.
Several other car funders have a retail finance arm, sure, but not many to the extent of Moneyway. Certainly, none of them have agreements with both Arts Council England to fund a custom Jagstang with treble pick-ups and the Association of Cycle Traders to provide finance on a set of racing hybrid 700s. It may have been when we started using such terminology that George and I lost our company in the conversation.
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By GlobalDataThe pair of us talked enthusiastically about whole days spent getting from one end of Denmark Street to the other, looking through the racks of Rickenbacker and boxes of Vox amps.
In case you weren’t familiar with the market, a decent Gibson Les Paul starts at £1,500, second hand. Yes, a Gibson SG can be bought for £600, but then all your guitar-playing pals will say you couldn’t afford a Les Paul. If you see a saxophone under £200 that can hit at least four discernable notes, buy it. Don’t even consider a drum kit without some serious cash; you would be better off just buying the sticks and playing percussion on your car.
The Moneyway scheme with the Arts Council is called Take It Away, encouraging people to pick up instruments by making them affordable through music shops.
"You’ll probably see in the window point-of-sale material saying ‘Take It Away’," explains George. "Nine months, interest-free, 10% down. We fund that.
"It’s part subsidised by the retailers – it helps them sell more instruments – and part subsidised by the Arts Council."
If it had been around in the 1990s, I wouldn’t be known today as the guy-whose-indie-band-got-nowhere-because-he-couldn’t-afford-a-Les-Paul.
Building on its reputation in music finance, Moneyway stepped into the gap in bicycle finance in February 2010, following Black Horse’s notice to retailers in late 2009.
"I remember buying a bike knowing my budget was £1,000," George says. "As we do, we get all dewy-eyed in these shops. We start thinking of those long rides.
"I’m looking at the carbon fibre, not the alloy, that’s only £30 over the 18 months, I can justify that… Guess which one I got."
George also concedes it was a visit to a bike shop in London that convinced him to start wearing a helmet. Having known little cycling outside the capital, I can’t contemplate riding without one.
When I’ve been dewy-eyed in a bike shop, however, it’s always been countermanded by a look through the window at the London A-road beyond, watching 18 wheels and countless tons of lorry hurtling past and knowing the gleaming new racer I was about to buy on finance, and my skull, would have nothing more to protect us than a ventilated plastic hat.
As George says, however, it’s not just about helping retailers sell bicycles but also the upsell, including all manner of kneepads and chain guards.
"It’s about the passion. People wanting stuff, rather than needing to have it; that’s the difference in that marketplace. Not surprisingly, people pay."
If you need proof of that ‘passion’, ask my wife how much space my waterproofs, mudguards, reflective gloves, winter gloves, summer gloves, dry lube, wet lube, lube remover, citrus cleaners, non-citrus cleaners, spare chains, spare handlebars, spare wheels, spare pedals, and range of lights take up in our tiny flat. I’m now limited to no more than two (of my six) guitars in the place at any one time.
Before George and I get too passionate, David swings us both back round to business. The cycle market has grown by at least 30%, year-on-year, every year Moneyway has been in it.
While music finance for the company began with Take It Away, nowadays 60% of business is direct with retailers and suppliers, and the Arts Council is looking to extend its work with Moneyway, as is the Association of Cycle Traders.
The question is, for those involved in cars and money: What markets are there still untapped for finance for boys like George and me?
richard.brown@vrlfinancialnews.com
