Monday interview: CEO of financial services firm, Hitachi Capital

Financial services firm Hitachi Capital delivered its ninth straight year of growth in 2018 as pre-tax profits soared to £116.4m.

The company’s Leeds operation, which is the base for its consumer finance business, has been credited for playing a major part in achieving this continued success.

Robert Gordon, the CEO of Hitachi Capital (UK), recently spoke to TheBusinessDesk.com about the “key role” of the Leeds office, which currently employs more than 450 people.

Gordon said: “Leeds is very key to our whole operation. The city is the second biggest financial centre in the UK and it is the perfect base for our consumer finance business. Our Leeds business covers over 50% of our profit, so it is a highly important business to Hitachi Capital.”

Commenting on profits surpassing the £115m mark, Gordon said: “Our success is really due to focusing on customer service, nothing more spectacular then that. We do seek to be in industries where we can make a difference and where we think we have the ability to givee an excellent service.

“Be that speedy decisions, helping customers to understand what financing instruments will work best in the industry, collecting useful data to understand their customer base, It’s a combination of many factors and we just seek to improve our service every year.”

Leeds is firmly established as a leading city for the financial services sector in the UK, and Gordon believes this is extremely beneficial when it comes to recruiting.

He said: “The access to staff in Leeds is crucial because there is a lot of good financial companies based in the city. I also really like the culture of the Leeds office as it is very reliable and the staff there a very keen on doing a great job.

“I do not view the Leeds base as a subsidiary office to our Southern headquarters, it very much is  partner office.”

Although the company has experienced nine years of “really high growth”, Gordon also discussed this this success is sustainable for the year ahead.

Gordon explained: “Obviously there has been a slow down. The propensity to invest from businesses has now fallen, and even though consumer expenditure is still growing it is at a lower rate.

We, however, have made conscious decisions to keep on investing in equipment and our people. I think to pause and reflect on what’s happening in other parts of the economy is wrong, you must continue to seek to invest and improve.”

When it comes to the looming outcome of Brexit, Gordon admitted that he is “highly concerned” about the future of the UK following 29 March.

He said: “We are highly concerned over the outcome of Brexit. But it is more concerning about the amount of time it takes to agree on the vision of the future, so it is very difficult for businesses in the UK to invest as it defers them from making any investment decision. We need to know what our relationship with Europe going to be in the future.

“It has been a very challenging year for a lot of businesses. There is a lot of structural changes going on in the sectors we are involved in, so having an overlay of political uncertainty on Europe just adds to the challenges that businesses are facing.

“Some form of certainty is absolutely key, and that is where we have flourished as we can give certainty to businesses in terms of funding and fixed-rate agreements.”

In hopes of seeing profits rise for a tenth consecutive year, Gordon said Hitachi Capital will achieve this through “organic growth”, which will be achieved “through the people and the businesses that we’ve got.”