Amid elevated backlogs, international equipment lender Terex Financial Services is assisting dealers as they navigate the post-pandemic landscape, helping to manage inventories through sales and rental programs.
Right-sizing and reducing fleets is a key trend for dealers, and financial services companies are looking to keep pace with them, Declan North, global director of MP Trade AR and Financial Solutions for Terex Corp., told Equipment Finance News this week.
Terex Corp. is a global equipment manufacturer in the aerial work platform and materials processing sectors. Terex Corp.’s overall sales totaled $5.2 billion in 2023, up 17% YoY, according to the company’s Feb. 8 earnings release.
“We’ve worked really long and hard with our dealers to get them into the situation whereby they have the right machines and the right mix of machines,” he said.
Terex’s backlogs are high, sitting at triple the historical average to end 2023, landing at $3.4 billion, up 18% YoY, according to the Feb. 08 company release. The last few years of crises have created inventory concerns for Terex dealers, North said.
“Obviously coming out of COVID, the shipping crisis and the logistics crisis, etc., dealers have built up inventory,” he said. “You had a situation whereby maybe they had the wrong mix of equipment, [the equipment] didn’t fit the situation or they’d ordered machines expecting the boom to continue, whereas it’s slowed down.”
This slowdown led to a return to pre-pandemic levels of inventories, North say. As a result, dealers and lenders responded to the market rightsizing with panic because, he says, dealers with big inventories had had the finances explained to them.
And that’s what Terex has done, he said.
Developing dealer programs
To help dealers navigate elevated inventories and refresh their fleets, Terex developed a retail program and rental purchase options, North said.
“Dealers are starting to invest in rental fleets because customers are kind of going [with] high interest rates [and] don’t see the real value, but they need the machine now,” he said.
Insight into developing and managing rental fleets “is invaluable when it comes to sitting with a dealer because the one thing you don’t want is [for] a dealer to invest in equipment that’s the wrong mix,” he said.
The “little variances” in rental fleets and rental markets makes a huge difference for each dealership, with American dealers being some of the best at managing those variances, North said.
“They know their markets,” he said. “When it comes [down] to [in] rental is actually knowing your customer, knowing your market and knowing the push and pull tactics of it.”
Learn more about Terex Financial Solutions’ approach to equipment finance in an exclusive interview with North on the Jan. 13 episode of EFN’s “The Dig” podcast.
The third annual Equipment Finance Connect at the JW Marriott Nashville in Nashville, Tenn., on May 14-15, 2025, is the only event that brings together equipment dealers and lenders to share insights, attend discussions on crucial industry topics and network with peers. Learn more about the event and register here.
