Contract win for specialist car financer
A SPECIALIST luxury car financer based in Yorkshire has won a contract with one of the largest dealerships in the UK.
The John Martin Group has chosen Ilkley-based Bridford Financial Solutions to provide finance for two of its prestigious dealerships for the Murray Motor Company.
Bridford Financial Solutions will structure individual products for the Murray Motor Company, which includes Lotus, Mazda, Rolls Royce, Jeep, Volvo, Aston Martin and Chrysler among its dealers.
Tim Marlow, owner of Bridford Financial Solutions, said: “We are really looking forward to our partnership with the John Martin Group where we will be supporting them with a variety of sophisticated, flexible products that will help boost their car sales and offer more choice to their dealerships and customers.
“The partnership represents the latest success in what has been an excellent start to 2010 for us which has seen us securing in excess of £6m of funding to date in what are typically the quieter months of the year.”
General sales manager at the Murray Motor Company, Rodger Laing, said: “Bridford Financial Solutions will provide us with more choice to offer our customers when it comes to financing their cars and will add great support to our car sales activities.”
Last year, Mr Marlow and his father Neil were banned and fined by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for their mismanagement of an investment scheme which put 53 customers at risk of losing nearly £10m.
The Marlows, who ran the Bridford Group, were approached by unnamed “businessmen” with an investment scheme and did not properly consider whether the scheme could work or investigate who they were dealing with, the FSA said.
However, Tim Marlow said today: “Bridford Financial Solutions is a separate entity to the Bridford Group that was fined by the FSA for involvement in an IFA structured product that went wrong, and operates in a totally different field as a prestige vehicle finance specialist.
“We have moved on from the incident, taking on board the comments made and 2009 was a fantastic year for us with over £25m of funding provided.”
Bridford Financial Solutions is owned by Tim Marlow.
