Where we work

Most of this happens by phone

Asset finance isn't a proximity service. Almost none of it requires anyone to be in the room. A supplier invoice, a conversation about what the asset is and what the business looks like, and the rest is documents moving between you, us and a funder.

That's why we work across the south and into London rather than only in Dorset. The office is in Bournemouth, Darren travels for the deals that warrant it, and everything else is arranged remotely without anybody being worse off for it.

What follows is what we actually see in each county, rather than a list of places we would accept work from.

Dorset

Home. The office is in Bournemouth, and Dorset is the one county where meeting in person is straightforward.

The work here spans the marine trades around Poole harbour, construction and groundworks across the conurbation, and the defence and engineering businesses that cluster near Bovington and Winfrith. Hospitality matters too, particularly on the coast, where a kitchen refit or a delivery vehicle is usually needed between seasons rather than during them. Agriculture sits behind a good deal of it, from the Blackmore Vale westwards.

It's also the only county where a conversation about a machine sometimes happens next to the machine.

More on asset finance in Dorset.

Hampshire

Adjacent, and where a lot of the overspill work naturally sits.

Southampton port drives much of it. Logistics operators, hauliers and the businesses that service them buy vehicles on cycles that rarely line up with their cash flow. The marine sector runs along the Solent, and aerospace and defence work clusters around Farnborough. Inland, the Test Valley is agricultural, with the equipment demands that come with it.

Close enough to visit when it helps, though most of the arranging still happens by phone.

More on asset finance in Hampshire.

Somerset

Dairy and agriculture dominate, and both are heavily equipment-dependent. Milking parlours, handling systems, tractors and trailers, bought against a cash cycle set by milk prices and harvest timing rather than by the calendar.

Food production sits alongside it, and the Hinkley Point supply chain has pulled in a large amount of construction and specialist plant work that shows no sign of slowing.

Most Somerset work reaches us by referral and is arranged remotely. That suits the assets involved, which tend to be well understood by funders and straightforward to value.

Wiltshire

Arable agriculture on a larger scale than Somerset, with the machinery values to match.

Defence is the other constant, around Salisbury Plain and Porton, along with the engineering and support businesses that sit behind it. The M4 corridor brings logistics operators who run vehicles hard and replace them on tight cycles.

The assets here are often high value and the buying decisions planned well in advance, which makes for an easier funding conversation if it starts early enough.

Berkshire

Thames Valley technology and the data centre estate that has grown up around it. Both generate requirements that look nothing like a van or an excavator: power, cooling, racking and fit-out.

Logistics and distribution run through the county, and professional services firms come to us for the ordinary things, vehicles and office equipment, rather than anything specialised.

Further from home and entirely phone-based. What makes it work is the asset rather than the postcode.

Surrey

Groundworks and landscaping, which between them account for a surprising share of the plant we fund. Mini excavators, dumpers, chippers and the trailers to move them.

Construction more broadly, and distribution operators serving the south west of London. Professional services firms make up the rest, and their requirements tend to be vehicles rather than equipment.

Surrey work almost always arrives through referral, and it's arranged remotely.

Sussex

Viticulture has changed this county. The English wine industry has grown quickly and it's capital-hungry in a specific way: presses, tanks, bottling lines and vineyard machinery, bought against a crop that pays once a year and a product that sits in a barrel for longer still.

Agriculture more broadly sits behind it, and Gatwick pulls in logistics, ground handling and aviation services businesses with their own equipment cycles.

A county where the funding conversation is more often about timing than amount.

London

Construction and groundworks, waste and recycling, last-mile logistics and hospitality. The asset types are familiar. The operating conditions aren't.

London work tends to involve tighter margins, more compliance around emissions zones, and vehicles doing far more stop-start mileage than the same vehicle would anywhere else. That affects both what's worth buying and how long it should be funded over.

We take London work, and a reasonable amount of it. What we don't do is pretend to be a London broker. The office is in Dorset and the work is arranged from there.

Next step

Wherever you are, the question is the same: what's the asset, what's it for, and when do you need it. Tell us that and we'll tell you what's realistic.

Talk it through with us

Start with what we arrange, or read what an asset finance broker actually does that a bank can't.