Park Home & Holiday Living turns the spotlight on Ian Martin
Ian Martin is managing director of leisure at DF Capital, which means he and his team play a vital role in supporting manufacturers, dealers and holiday parks in the leisure industry with finance solutions to make the most of current commercial opportunities.
He is also responsible for developing the bank’s position as a leading provider in the sector. We caught up with him to get some insight into what is going on in the industry at the moment.
How did 2023 treat manufacturers and dealers?
Last year started relatively strongly for both manufacturers and dealers. However, from the spring onwards, the cost of living challenge contributed to a slowdown in consumer activity. Some dealers and parks experienced cancelled orders and some manufacturers – particularly those in the holiday home sector – were working on reduced hours as stock was broadly not selling as quickly as it had done in the previous year. In most cases however, the tourer market fared better with minimal reductions.
Nonetheless, September’s great weather – after a rather wet summer – meant that demand again increased across the industry, almost in line with 2019 levels. So, autumn ended on an encouraging note and we’re hoping that has a positive impact on this year.
What are the opportunities and challenges for dealers and manufacturers in 2024?
The market really starts from March onwards, and we’re cautiously optimistic about this year. The recent Budget has seen the national insurance contribution rate cut from 10% to 8% of pay from April, meaning people will have more take home pay. There is a new lower cap on energy prices, mortgage interest rates are more palatable than a year ago and inflation is expected to fall below the government’s 2% target in the next couple of months. Plus pay rises – if they are to happen – often materialise in the new financial year. So this could all contribute to increased consumer confidence.
As we get to late spring, demand in the industry is likely to increase if the weather is kind. Holiday parks will be able to clear the decks and put in orders to manufacturers.
What trends are we seeing at the moment that will carry on into 2024?
We’ve seen a number of parks that are taking the opportunity to convert their unsold units into ‘flexi’ rental fleet, which provides a useful income. The unit can then be retailed when the time is right. Consumers have also found this attractive as they get a good deal on the ‘preloved’ asset when they purchase it and there are already existing bookings in from holiday makers for the future.
Also we’re seeing that higher-end lodges are still selling well, compared to lower-priced units.
What are your hopes for 2024? Can you tell us a bit about what plans and ambitions DF Capital has in the leisure market next year?
Our medium-term growth plans are to support more customers and become a multi-product lender across the sectors in which we operate, and of course that includes leisure. We’re looking at other flexible products that could help our customers, such as rental finance. Rental fleets are generally ordered in the summer/early autumn, built in Q4 and then sited ready for March. We think that operators would prefer to avoid starting to pay for them in the winter, so we’re exploring how we can help in this way.
What makes DF Capital stand out from its competitors?
The depth of expertise and experience of our lending team. Our team really understand – and in some cases have worked in – the industries that our customers are in. Our programme managers, who work with manufacturers to set up programme terms for their dealers and operators, have been instrumental in our success.
We are here to support our customers – and they tell us we’re easy to do business with, they praise our customer portal and our communication. Our offering is suited to those who want consistency and certainty as we provide funding for individual units at a fixed rate at the point of pay-out.
What clients have you started working with in the last 12 months?
We’ve started working with a number of new vendors recently in both the campervan and lodge sectors and a lot of these have come through referrals. Our customers tend to recommend us to other similar businesses they know because of our flexibility and our know-how in the industry.
