Every year or so, I explore what industries are hot (and not) in equipment financing. I actually find this very interesting, and people ask me about it all the time.
Personally, I think they are looking for stock tips or such (because it does seem that when a particular industry is “rising” in equipment financing, that industry in general does well in an overall sense – and vice versa.) But, and this is key, I can only speculate on what an industry in general is doing, and not any individual company (meaning don’t corner me at the party asking for stock tips.)
So with that, let’s explore a few industries that are currently hot in terms of equipment leasing / equipment financing:
The biggest surprise to me this year is that agricultural equipment seems to be a hot item for companies. Things like farming equipment, dairy equipment, machinery and equipment for storing produce, staple goods… that kind of thing. I’m not a sociologist or economist, but I would guess as populations increase (which they have been), food becomes even more important. Plus, even though the economy isn’t as robust as we’d all like, it is better than the previous several years, meaning “eating out” is likely on the rise. Regardless of the reason, though, agricultural and farming equipment is definitely hot right now.
Another “hot” item (or items) as of late is landscaping equipment. Everything from commercial riding mowers to cherry-picker trucks for tree companies to hand held equipment like commercial gas powered trimmers and the like. This is a little less surprising to me because it’s an every year seasonal thing – landscaping equipment is always “up” once spring hits around the country. Partially because those old mowers are started for the first time in months, so if they are going to break, now’s the time.
So there we have two industries that are moving upward. We’ll go over two more “hot ones” in the next post, and then we’ll look at what’s “not hot” in equipment financing.