ASHBROOK, a leading plant & powered access hire company based in Cheshire, has used JCB Finance to help fund their large JCB fleet consisting of dumpers, telehandlers and electric scissor lifts.
Over the space of 25 years the company has grown from strength to strength. Originally starting in agricultural contracting operating from the family farm, the business expanded into groundworks and then self-drive plant hire.
“We are one of the largest hire fleets here in the Northwest. We try and buy quality reliable machines. Our selling point is we try our best to give our customers an excellent quality reliable machine to do their work efficiently, deliver it on time and support it well during the hire. We pride ourselves on our service levels and reliability.” – Mike Ashbrook, Commercial Director
A long-standing JCB Finance customer, following consultations with JCB Finance local Relationship Manager, Karen Edwards and Managing Director Jon Hall, ASHBROOK has recently secured a credit line tailored to their needs, enabling further investment in JCBs to service their customer base of over 5,000 firms. Mike Ashbrook, Commercial Director explains.
“Between Karen and Jon, they’ve got us to where we need to be. It’s great that you've got the Karen’s and the Jon’s of the world – they are the sort of people you can work with and get on with.”
ASHBROOK chose the fixed rate HP Plus facility from JCB Finance to finance the majority of their JCB machines, with over 600 JCB machines currently in the fleet. Due to the way interest is calculated on a HP Plus agreement compared to standard fixed rate hire purchase, HP Plus is attractive to customers who may wish to pay lump sums to reduce their balance and interest charged, or to settle early and save on interest.
“We've always been quite conservative in our thinking and contingency planning. We saw the fixed rate agreements as a way of guaranteeing the cost of ownership.
With a fixed rate HP agreement, you know what that machine is going to cost over the period of the loan, and you can plan around that. Whereas with variable rate, if something happens somewhere else on the other side of the globe, all of a sudden interest rates can spike up say two percent – and before you know it you've doubled your interest payments on tens of millions worth of HP and you can end up in a sticky situation.
So, we always opt to take the fixed rate over the variable rate, just for the certainty it gives us and the stability during any unforeseen turbulence. The reason we like the JCB Finance HP Plus facility is it gives us a fixed rate and savings if we choose to settle early, it's always clear and straightforward.”
ASHBROOK manage their many agreements via the secure JCB Finance Online platform. This service lets businesses keep oversight of all their agreements, track how much is left to pay off and request settlement figures.
“JCB Finance are head and shoulders above the rest in terms of the technology. We use the JCB Finance Online portal which is really good, and we sign all agreements online and it’s brilliant. Some finance companies are still in the stone ages. They still need stuff posting back in hard copy and it makes life difficult for you as a customer, whereas with JCB Finance, it’s the opposite.
It shows that somebody actually cares about the customer, and that they’ve thought about the buying process from the customer's point of view. They have thought, what does the customer want to know? What does the customer want? They just need to get this document signed now because they're in a business and they're in a rush, and they want the machine.”
At JCB Finance we pride ourselves on putting our customers first and working together to find a solution to meet their needs. Our Relationship Managers, like Karen, work closely with businesses such as ASHBROOK, to ensure they are receiving the best service possible.
“Karen has got that reputation for honesty and straightforwardness and following through on what she promises. She is the sort of Finance rep that needs to exist. But is in short supply.” adds Mike.
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