DMG MORI Finance posts over £100 million lending since its UK launch

With the objective of turning machine tool investment on its head, DMG MORI Finance was formed in Germany in 2007 and was launched in the UK in 2017, offering funding in GBP. Since then, DMG MORI Finance has funded investment in DMG MORI machine tools exceeding £100 million.

James Clist, Director, UK & Ireland Business, DMG MORI Finance explains, “Traditionally, financing of machine tools requires the purchaser to pay a deposit and make payments before they have gone through the learning curve and generated an invoice for the parts manufactured on the new machine, making the investment cash flow negative from the start. DMG MORI Finance understands that behind every machine tool purchase there is a financial decision. We focus on creating the best possible environment for investment, creating financing structures to suit the customer, gaining an understanding of where the customer is going with their business and not concentrating solely on historic performance. The aim is to make the investment affordable, and more importantly cash generative, thereby enabling the customer to choose the best machine for their application, whilst not having to compromise on manufacturing capability and performance due to headline cost”.

DMG MORI Finance is the DMG MORI Group’s own leasing company and is regulated by BaFin, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority. This gives DMG MORI Finance the ability to use its expertise in machine tools and manufacturing investment to assess the customer and the beneficial impact of the machine it plans to buy.

More importantly, it also gives DMG MORI Finance the flexibility to respond to difficulties in the market such as the Covid pandemic, taking a proactive approach in supporting its customers so that they could come through the crisis and be successful in the long-term.

In addition, their understanding of the used marketplace allows DMG MORI Finance to offer market leading residual values on machines, allowing the customer to maximise their earning potential from their investment with DMG MORI. At EMO 2019 DMG MORI Finance introduced the “Top Seller Campaign”, which offered either a 6-month payment holiday or low start payments, together with market leading residual values on selected models; this was expanded to cover 41 of the best selling machines in May 2020 and continues to run to this day. Traditional finance has a low appetite for risk and companies are now filing accounts that perhaps show a poorer performance than normal, clearly as a direct result of the pandemic; this in turn can make investment more difficult. DMG MORI Finance is looking beyond these short-term issues by considering the opportunities generated by, for example, increased reshoring to the UK, the growth in demand for single aisle commercial aircraft, together with the opportunities within the electric vehicle landscape.

The £100 million book, which DMG MORI Finance now has in the UK, gives it scale and hence room to manoeuvre, taking a balanced view on supporting its customers. Finance has always been a barrier to investment for some smaller companies. DMG MORI’s ‘can do’ attitude helps these companies to choose the machine and the technology they would like and not just what they can afford. It achieves this by assessing the future potential for the business, offering cash generative financing terms and residual values, resulting in a lower monthly cost. They also have the flexibility to take back the machine or upgrade it with the latest technology.

Manfred Wehrmann, Managing Director DMG MORI Finance added, “We now operate in 29 countries across the world, supporting our customers’ investment with DMG MORI. Since we started the business in the UK, we have worked with a very broad spectrum of customers, from small owner managed business up to multinational OEM’s. We treat every deal with the same care and attention and I am very pleased with the positive impact that we have had in the UK”.

Steve Finn, Managing Director DMG MORI UK Ltd says, “There are technical and commercial elements for every deal. The customer wants to make money, so having the best machinery and the right commercial environment to make this happen allows the investment to proceed. With DMG MORI Finance, customers can select a better machine than they anticipated at an affordable price with a company that takes a long-term view of their business both technically and financially.”