Life Fitness offers finance on Certified Pre-Owned and brand new kit. It has leased equipment to Hawthorn Leisure Centre, opened by Darren Campbell (above)


tailored leasing deals Of course, no two businesses are the same, and leasing deals should ideally acknowledge individual circumstances. Graham Partridge, director of Alliance


and General Leasing, explains: “Leasing is a great option for many businesses, particularly in today’s economic climate, but there are still pitfalls to watch out for. One of the main problems that we fi nd with many leasing deals is that they specify minimum term rather than fi xed term. A fi xed term gives you a fi xed end date, as the name would suggest – you know the date when the agreement will start and when the fi nal payment will be made. A minimum term means that there is no fi xed end date and, unless you’re on top of your agreement, payments will still be taken from your bank account until you stop it. “We have over 25 years’ experience


in arranging leasing deals for the leisure industry and are well aware that every case needs to be treated on its own merits. We pride ourselves on offering bespoke deals for our customers. Leasing is no different from any other fi nancial package in that respect – you wouldn’t expect everyone to be offered exactly the same mortgage, irrespective of their circumstances or size of loan, and leasing has to be treated in the same way. We work with our customers to provide them with the very best deal to suit their business needs.” Meanwhile, most of the reputable


equipment manufacturers offer leasing packages. Technogym and Precor


january 2011 © cybertrek 2011


Leasing is a great option for many businesses, particularly in today’s economic climate


both offer a personalised service with fl exible leasing options, for example. Gideon Stanley, Precor’s international customer fi nancing director, comments:


“Precor works closely with customers and fi nancing partners to tailor leasing packages that meet the requirements for both parties. It’s about managing expectations and achieving the right balance. Most companies take a standard fi xed-term deal over three to fi ve years with monthly payments. If a customer is willing to put up a good level of deposit, then we can often get a better package for them. “That said, we can be fl exible and


variations are possible – customers sometimes look to lower monthly payments or build in payment holidays, for example. Our job is to work with the customer, help broker the arrangements


with the fi nance partner and try and get the best deal in the circumstances.”


turn to the experts Meanwhile Life Fitness offers fi nance not only on its brand new equipment but also on its Certifi ed Pre-Owned range.


“Like most equipment providers, we work with a fi nance partner to provide the actual leasing agreements,” explains Alan Louden, business development manager for Life Fitness. “We’re fi tness experts, not fi nance experts, so we choose to partner with top specialists in this fi eld so we can offer our clients the best possible fi nance solutions. “Having the right fi nance partner adds


value to our customer relationships. A complete package can be created for the customer that takes into account fi nance of the new equipment and also


Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 53


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