Premier Equipment Solutions targets 90% equipment leasing penetration 

HOUSTON — Premier Equipment Solutions is targeting a significant expansion of equipment leasing in the compact construction market.  

The company aims to increase from roughly 25% leased equipment volume today to as much as 90% over time, Premier Equipment Solutions Chief Executive Andy Suhy said on Tuesday during a fireside chat at Equipment Finance Connect in Houston. 

“The compact construction equipment market that we’re in, it feels like it’s 20 years behind the forklift market and there’s not a lot of equipment leasing, which is really the backbone of a life cycle asset management program,” he said.  

“In the material handling and forklift world, it was 0% and now it’s 99% because nobody wants to own a forklift anymore.”  

Premier Equipment Solutions, a private equity-backed dealership platform operating Bobcat and John Deere dealerships in New England, is building its model around bundled lease structures that include preventive maintenance, uptime guarantees, telemetry monitoring, rental support and service packages, Suhy said.  

“The reality is customers want a complete solution,” he said. “We’re training our sales organization to sell revenue production and uptime for our customers.”  

Changing customer relationships 

Rather than focusing conversations on equipment pricing or interest rates, the company is training sales staff to quantify downtime costs, lost productivity and maintenance exposure while presenting customers with bundled monthly payment structures.  

“We spend a lot of time in the selling cycle and it lengthens the selling cycle, but it’s such a better strategic partnership relationship than a transactional vendor relationship,” Suhy said. 

Lifecycle asset management helps customers replace equipment before operating costs to exceed replacement costs, Suhy said.   

“It’s not to provide you a financing vehicle,” he said of leasing. “It’s to keep you within the lifecycle.”  

The company also is incorporating AI-enabled service support and telematics into its bundled leasing programs to improve technician productivity and maximize uptime, Suhy said. 

Equipment Finance Connect 2026 concluded May 19. Follow coverage at equipmentfinancenews.com.