Funding old plant and machinery.

[Tuvra]

I have a client that may possibly be looking to place a large scale order with my company.

Therefore, I am looking to purchase 4-5 of these "little" beauties:

Problem being this kit will all be around 20 years old and I fear this may be a problem when it comes to lending

Each item will cost approx £15k so I will be looking to borrow £60-75k. The returns are very strong e.g. £800/week per machine which is expected to last at the very least 6 months, potentially 2 years.

The last time we done similar (much smaller scale) works we paid out £25k to hire the same amount of kit for 2 months which was a bit sole destroying. Therefore, does anyone have any advice or companies/people that may be able to assist funding such equipment?

Any sort of finance examples would also be very much appreciated, I would want the loan over a 12m period and can be reasonably flexible in regards to the down payment....

I have only ever had van finance through the business so please be gentle....

[Tuvra]

Unfortunately not, I am also a Sole Trader (for now) which I also worry about when going for reasonably large scale borrowing like the above.

[Tuvra]

C Lee Farquar said:

Can't lend you any money but I do have an old Haulamatic dump truck.

I can tell you that £800 a week can soon disappear if you're paying for maintenance and repair.

Funny thing, I used to have an ex Mod Haulamatic 6x4.

I have lots of experience in running this kind of kit and know all about potential bills, I once spent £19k refurbishing an A35c, the transmission alone was £7k

Thanks for all the help guys. I will keep everyone who has PM'd informed (if I haven't, I will do) . As I have already explained to some, the deal all hinges on whether a very large project gets the go ahead from the planning inspectorate.

And for the record, tyres can be had for £800 a piece, decent branded stuff £1k and up

[Tuvra]

poj said:

self drive?

No, I have the drivers on them too. This particular client pays me for "self drive" hire and I also charge them a set rate for the driver - they supply the fuel. Its an odd working relationship which has seen me make nothing on trucks in the past, hence me trying to acquire my own kit before undertaking the works

C Lee Farquar said:

In use this Summer

Haha, that's exactly the same as the one we had, except the bin on ours came up and over the cab/bonnet area. Ours was ex MOD so was absolutely mint, something like this:

problem was it was 6x4 and not 6x6 which meant it was useless on sand

elster said:

MY father in law's company does funding on all sorts of stuff for industry. They alos have government grant money to give away too.

I am no finance expert, so not sure exactly what difference would make on a sole trader, but definitely do for purchase of older plant.

http://www.financeforindustry.org/

Can ask him if you want?

Government grant funding sounds ideal. I will of course need drivers for this kit so it will probably create a few jobs as well - please ask.

This has proven a great help, knowing that there are companies out there who can fund this kind of stuff and the rough figures given have proved most helpful. Just fingers crossed the project goes ahead now so I can kick it on to the next stage and start taking you all up with your offers/leads