A new car finance company with a unique business model focused
on physical branch sales has recently announced major growth plans,
after four years of keeping a low profile in the industry.
Subprime specialist The Car Finance Company plans to inject £66m
into the motor finance market in the next 24 months as part of a
planned expansion drive.
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The company, which won the Lender of the Year award at the
recent F&I Awards held by Frontline Solutions, operates out of
three physical premises on British high streets but hopes to expand
to 20 locations over the next two years.
Although the branch strategy incurs overhead costs, it’s not
something founder and managing director Mark Smith is afraid of:
“We’re meeting every customer. We’re getting to know them, and can
be sure they understand every term in the contract. They must
understand every term and condition, or we won’t lend money to
them.”
Smith says his company’s model is built on an ethical
foundation, based on trying to make car finance as approachable and
affordable to consumers as possible, with an emphasis on repeat
business rather than high rates charged.
Under the company’s method, dealers submit proposals to
their local branch, before sending customers on to the shop to have
their applications underwritten. If this is not
possible, The Car Finance Company will send
representatives to the dealer to meet customers face to face.
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By GlobalData“Our model is different and we will accept the costs involved,
because spending time with the customer is essential to us,” said
CEO Andrew Walton-Green. “We’re looking at a long-term model. We
don’t want the customer to feel like a pariah. We want to help
people who genuinely want to repair their credit.”
Their fourth office opens in Chatham in November and staff have
already been hired for Reading, Crawley, Bristol, the south coast
of Wales and Cambridge, with a growth from 27 to 90 employees
projected for the current growth spurt.
“As long as we can maintain quality, we can go faster,” said
Walton-Green.
A full interview with The Car Finance Company founder and
managing director Mark Smith and CEO Andrew Walton-Green will
appear in this month’s Motor Finance magazine.
richard.brown@vrlfinancialnews.com
