LGMG leaning on independents amid North American relaunch

LGMG North America relaunched with a renewed focus on service, customer trust and long-term growth in the rental and construction industries, buoyed by partnerships with independent financing firms. 

The relaunch of LGMG North America concludes a restructuring process that began in 2022 following an October 2021 decision by the U.S. Department of Commerce that LGMG’s parent company, Lingong, and several other Chinese manufacturers violated U.S. tariff laws. 

The company is expanding U.S. operations at its headquarters in The Colony, Texas, investing in parts, service, digital tools and aftersales support while ramping up production to 30,000 units in three years at its Monterrey, Mexico, facility, new LGMG North America President Craig Paylor told Equipment Finance News. 

“The real emphasis behind the relaunch right now is that our marketplace has been on hold for the best part of two years. You might even go all the way back to the pandemic,” he said. “I don’t think anything has really rebounded from that period of time. Especially leading into the last year of the last administration in the United States and the first year of the new administration, everyone’s been kind of in a wait-and-see mode.” 

Independent financing partnerships 

LGMG NA plans to lean on independent financing partnerships to accelerate equipment sales by sharing risk with rental companies, easing capital strain and building mutual commitment during market cycles, Paylor said. 

“It gives us an edge if we believe in the business enough to participate,” he said. “Sometimes it’s about taking a first-loss position or using part of our discount to subsidize rates or restructuring a deal when things shift.” 

Independent equipment financers are critical to LGMG’s North American growth, as the company looks to manage the equipment lifecycle alongside rental customers and financiers, Paylor said. 

“If we’re not offering financing, they’ll have to go to local banks, and that’s a gamble,” he said. “Honestly, I see us getting closer to a model where we don’t even really ‘sell’ the machine. It leaves our yard, goes to a rental customer, gets financed and eventually comes back to us.” 

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