Inventory Floor Planning Solutions

Archive for the ‘News’ Category

LINDSAY CHAPPELL

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS

MAY 7, 2009 – 2:33 PM ET

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Conceding that some of its U.S. suppliers may be too financially troubled to build their own parts plants, Volkswagen AG is seeking help from an unlikely source: real estate investors.

VW said it is asking private developers to build and own suppliers’ factories that would serve the automaker’s new U.S. assembly plant here.

Tom Loafman, purchasing director for Volkswagen Group of America, said the plan would help suppliers reduce their upfront investment. Developers would build parts factories to order and lease them to suppliers, he said.

Loafman said he is talking to suppliers and private investors around the South. VW remains flexible about structuring the financial arrangements, he added.

Nelson Bowers, a Volkswagen, Toyota and Kia dealer in Chattanooga, said he plans to take part in the effort.

VW wants a supplier park on a 1,000-acre parcel that the city of Chattanooga is making available next to the site of the new auto plant. The company seeks 80 percent local content for the mid-sized sedan the plant is scheduled to start producing in 2011.

The new sedan will share half its parts with the next-generation Jetta to be built at VW’s plant in Puebla, Mexico, Loafman said.

Scott Cooper, an economic development specialist with the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce, is working with Volkswagen suppliers. Many of them, he said, face cash flow problems.

“Volkswagen recognizes that the situation is different now than when a lot of other new auto plants were built in recent years,” Cooper said. “They’re devoting a significant amount of time courting suppliers to this supplier park.”

VW has named only a few of its U.S. suppliers to the new plant. Last month, VW awarded M-Tek Inc., of Manchester, Tenn., a $147 million contract for door components. M-Tek has not decided whether it will build a dedicated facility at the Chattanooga site.

Source: Automotive News

Technorati Tags: Volkswagen

Contact Your U.S. Senators and Urge Them to Support
Small Business Administration (SBA) Loans
for RV Floorplan Loans

Click Here for a Sample Letter

RV dealers and their volunteer leaders agree: the number one issue facing the RV industry is financing.   The Obama Administration must turn its attention on the severe impact of the credit crisis on RV dealers and the urgent need for floorplan credit.  Without retail credit and floorplan loans, even well-capitalized dealers can be out of business.  Preserving floorplan lending is essential to keeping dealers in business and purchasing new RVs. The RV industry will not recover until the retail credit and floorplan problem is fixed.

RVDA is urging the President and Congress to support the following policy recommendations.  These recommendations also have the support of the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA).

1. Expand access to Small Business Administration (SBA) lending capacity for dealers.  The Administration has the statutory authority to expand the SBA size standard that today excludes many dealers.  Also, the Administration has the statutory authority to allow SBA’s guarantee program to be used for floorplan loans that currently are ineligible under the program. An emergency directive implementing these two changes would increase access to credit for small business dealers all across the country.

2. Restore liquidity for RV retail and floorplan lenders. Work with the Federal Reserve Board to make sure that the Term Asset-backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) injects essential liquidity by revitalizing securitization of RV retail and floorplan loans. If TALF is too cumbersome to meet this objective in the short term, then create another mechanism to restore lending in these areas. Time is of the essence.

President Obama’s pick for the SBA’s new administrator, Karen Mills, told Senators at her confirmation hearing that she “would be very interested” to look at the SBA floorplan loan policy “quickly and see what the possibilities are to help.” It’s time to urge the Administration and Congress to transfer those words into action.

Please contact your U.S. Senators and urge them to support changes in SBA loan policies that can help RV dealers.

To contact your U.S. Senators click here.

RVDA will post regular updates and more information at www.rvda.org. Thanks for your support.

Mike Molino, CAE
President, RVDA

Technorati Tags: Floorplan Financing, Floorplan Loans, National Automobile Dealers Association, SBA, Small Business Administration

Diana Kurylko
Automotive News Europe
March 23, 2009 06:01 CET

MAHWAH, New Jersey — Jaguar and Land Rover executives say they are guiding dealers to alternative sources of floorplan financing, but those who are not approved by Chase Auto Finance ultimately are on their own.

Ford Motor Co., which sold Jaguar and Land Rover last June to Tata Motors for $2.3 billion (about €1.5 billion at the time of the sale), will stop inventory lending to the brands through Ford Motor Credit on June 1.

Since January, Chase has been providing retail financing for Jaguar and Land Rover dealers but is handling floorplan financing with dealers on an individual basis.

Sharon Corrigan, vice president of retail operations for Jaguar Land Rover NA LLC, said dealers must “come to terms with and find their sources” of inventory financing.

Jaguar and Land Rover have 174 franchises each. A company spokesman said that only 80 were relying on Ford Motor Credit for credit.

“Of those, 52 have not yet achieved a new source of finance, and they are all working with other sources, including Chase,” the spokesman said in an e-mail. “We know banks that are lending money, and we are providing [the names of] those banks to dealers.”

In interview last week, top Jaguar and Land Rover executives said “virtually all,” dealers will find inventory financing.

Their optimism isn’t shared by the National Automobile Dealers Association. Last month, NADA asked the government to consider loan guarantees for dealer inventory financing.

“Even creditworthy dealers are having trouble finding access to any floorplan financing, or the financing available to them is being offered on terms that are not competitive and not commensurate with the risk,” according to an NADA fact sheet.

NADA says the average floorplan loan is about $4.9 million.

Full Story at Automotive News

Technorati Tags: floor plan financing, Floorplan Financing