Strategic changes announced for growth and broker support
Australia’s leading asset finance aggregator, Platform Finance, is on target for a record 12 months thanks to a strong “trio of factors”. And the company has announced some strategic changes to further grow the business.
“We’ve risen to the pandemic challenges,” says Damian Mantini, Platform Finance’s Director Aggregation and Strategic Partnerships. “Despite the global supply chain issues, Platform Finance has grown significantly during this period.”
The growth is borne out by Platform Finance’s record results for May this year. “In our strategic partnerships part of the business, we experienced a growth rate of 50% compared with May 2021 – an all-time record. And while last financial year was a record year for us overall, we have already surpassed those numbers. These results are testament to the hard work our team members have put in with the broker network and their customers.”
Mantini points to three key factors contributing to the growth: a huge surge in demand for asset finance, Platform Finance’s diversified product offering, and its enhanced support for SMEs.
“Our SME lender panel is now even stronger than ever to support commercial asset finance customers and brokers, while in the consumer space we’ve been able to grow our personal loan offering for our brokers’ clients,” he says. “We’ve been working closely with our brokers as they prepare their market strategies for EOFY, which has also led to the record results in May.”
And while Mantini says all asset sectors have been performing well, one of the strongest performers has been in private motor vehicle sales. “One of our focuses has been on helping brokers and their customers navigate this area, which has seen it grow significantly,” he says. “The instant asset write-off has certainly had a major impact, particularly in May and now in the lead up to the end of financial year.”
Sales team to double
The strong results means that Platform Finance is increasing its sales and operations teams over the next six months, and it has appointed a new National Sales Manager, Scott Thomson, who joined the group on June 14, to continue to drive the growth.
“Scott is an awesome addition to the team. We have worked with him for several years in his most recent role as relationship manager with Pepper, and he’s culturally very well aligned to the Platform Finance values. He’s worked across lending, aggregation – and he’s been a broker. Scott has a deep understanding of the asset finance market, both in the consumer and commercial sectors, and his experience and expertise mean he’s well prepared to lead the sales team into our next phase of growth,” says Mantini.
“Scott will continue to execute on our strategic objectives of growing the business. He’ll be doubling the sales team and will also expand our operations team, which has already grown by 30% this financial year.”
In addition, Platform Finance will be making further improvements to its systems and processes as well as marketing and education. “These will be the cornerstone of our ongoing improvement plans in the new financial year,” adds Mantini. “We expect more brokers to diversify and get into asset finance as the home loan market conditions change. In our 12 years of providing services to brokers, we’ve seen this trend before and are prepared to assist brokers to understand asset finance and engage with it with confidence. The number of brokers actively engaging with us has grown significantly over the past 12 months. With issues like supply challenges, more private sales, rates moving, and the sheer number of funding options available, brokers are increasingly seeing the benefits of partnering with an asset finance specialist.”
Looking to the new financial year, Mantini says interest rates in the asset finance sector will continue to trend upwards and supply chain issues will continue. “We operated in an unusually low-rate environment for an extended period, so we’re certainly managing and resetting customer expectations. And on the supply chain challenges, it’ll mean customers will need to pre-order motor vehicles well in advance. Despite these challenges, our team is here to help support our brokers.”
