Salina, Kan.-based dealer Land Pride is leveraging Vero Technologies, which provides customized floorplan financing programs, to help create dynamic floor plans for its affiliated dealers.
Land Pride’s disillusionment with traditional lenders led to the collaboration, Vero Chief Executive Officer John Mizzi told Equipment Finance News.
Land Pride approved a Vero offer to provide Land Pride’s dealer network with a new floorplan financing program amid heightened inventory levels for dealers, Mizzi said.
“The dealers inevitably have to tie up cash if the inventory hasn’t been sold,” he said. “So, we came up with a program. … It’s particularly relevant today and important, coming out of COVID.”
With first-half tractor and combine sales declining as much as 31% year over year in the first half of 2024, inventory levels continue to rise at dealerships, according to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. As inventory levels rise, even large equipment dealers such as Titan Machinery see floor plan costs rise.
Land Pride, a division of Kubota-subsidiary Great Plains Manufacturing, manufactures tractor implements and Kubota-branded construction equipment attachments marketed throughout a national dealer network, according to a company release.
Land Pride has previously financed through Sheffield Financial, a division of Truist Bank, according to its company website. It’s unclear whether that partnership has ended.
Vero’s product strategy
Vero offers flexible floor plans for dealers as well as a software-as-a-service program for dealers looking to modernize and aims to provide greater personalized than legacy lenders.
“We started Vero really recognizing that, to be frank, it’s not the sexiest niche in the credit markets,” Mizzi said. “We saw an opportunity to … build out a technology program for other lenders.”
The company is targeting smaller OEMs with the hope that its technology can upgrade their systems and internal structures without adding cost, he said.
Vero, which announced the partnership in a recent release, has amassed $8.5 million in funding from venture capital groups since its 2020 inception.
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