Industry veterans form floorplan finance company
More than 10 years ago, the current senior management team of Northpoint Commercial Finance LLC joined Textron Financial, where, working in a variety of sectors, they expanded Textron’s floorplan business to roughly $4 billion in managed assets, serving roughly 1,000 manufacturers and 16,000 dealers.
In 2009, Textron and other market players scaled back or exited their distribution finance lending activities. Recognizing the business opportunity and the need for floorplan capital, the idea for Northpoint Commercial Finance LLC was born. In March 2012, the senior management team formed Northpoint to serve as a diversified non-auto inventory finance company targeting the powersports, marine and outdoor power equipment industries.
As a privately held finance company, Northpoint’s management says the company enjoys the entrepreneurship of an independent firm, coupled with the financial strength and expertise it gains from relationships with its equity sponsors, affiliated funds of Perella Weinberg Partners’ Asset Based Value strategy, as well as its bank debt partner, Goldman Sachs Bank USA.
“Northpoint is a flat organization, where the decision makers in the company are in close contact with its customers by design, allowing them to better understand customer needs,” Northpoint president and CEO Dan Radley said in an interview with Powersports Business.
As a result, Radley says Northpoint can accelerate important credit decisions as well as customer situations that require immediate attention.
While Northpoint is a floorplan financing company, it maintains relationships with companies that can provide services that assist and improve the distribution cycle, Radley said. This includes insurance and extended warranty programs, as well as logistics, including shipping, inventory trading, virtual warehousing and enterprise business software for manufacturers.
Northpoint is currently taking applications from dealers and manufacturers and is looking to reestablish relationships and provide financing with the knowledge its management team has developed over many years in the powersports and marine industries.
“We are here and ready to work for you — the powersports and marine manufacturers, distributors and dealers,” Radley said. “We know these industries very well and we look forward to continuing and growing our many long-term relationships under Northpoint Commercial Finance.”
