Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JULY 10, 2023 25 Keystone Equipment Finance President Todd Kaufman stands in front of his own artwork, in his new office at 433 S. Main St., West Hartford. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Bucking The Trend Growing West Hartford equipment financier adds office space as others shrink footprints By Skyler Frazer sfrazer@hartfordbusiness.com I n the age of hybrid and remote work, many companies in Connecticut and nationwide have been shedding office space to reflect how their teams work. But not all businesses are doing so. Keystone Equipment Finance Corp., an equipment finance company based in West Hartford, recently relocated its corporate headquarters to add about 3,500 square feet of space to support future growth. Keystone President Todd Kaufman said his firm is looking to fill four to five new positions, and dozens of people could be hired over the next several years. "While you see a lot of companies going off-site, and office space occu- pancy shrinking pretty rapidly in almost every major city, for us, that approach didn't make sense," Kaufman said. "The culture and just the small, niche nature of our business made it important for people to be present and work as a team, listen to each other, and grow and succeed with each other." Filling a niche Kaufman founded Keystone Equipment Finance in 2000, out of his West Hartford home, following in his father's footsteps. Alan Kaufman was the founder and CEO of Keystone Leasing of Connecticut until he sold the company in 1998. Todd Kaufman started Keystone Equipment Financing two years later. The company is a nationwide provider of small-ticket equipment financing in the transportation, construction, arbor and waste indus- tries. It provides financing for compa- nies that purchase new or used vehicles such as box trucks, trailers and construction equipment. Keystone specializes in equipment purchases of less than $250,000, and typically serves companies that do less than $5 million in annual revenue. It used to underwrite equipment leases, but got out of that business, Kaufman said. "We find that most of our customers are more interested in owning the equipment than leasing it," he said, adding that Keystone raises capital by issuing asset-backed securities. Keystone's growth in recent years, including throughout the pandemic, attracted outside investor interest. In December 2021, Kaufman sold the company to Charlotte, North Carolina-based Commercial Credit Group Inc., which is in a similar busi- ness but serves larger customers. Deal terms weren't disclosed, but Kaufman has stayed on to lead Keystone, which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Commercial Credit Group. "For us corporately, Keystone fills a niche," said Julie Murphy, vice pres- ident of marketing for Commercial Credit Group. "We basically do the same things, we just service different markets." Kaufman said rising interest rates have affected the company's margins over the past year, but economic uncertainty has also caused banks to increasingly pull out of the industrial sectors Keystone serves, leaving room for it to pick up the slack. "It creates a lot more opportunity for us. We are not owned by a bank, and we have the flexibility and the agility and the capital to seize a lot of market share right now," Kaufman said. "We're looking forward to the future. We're very bullish on it." Room to grow Keystone's new office is located in the Corporate Center West building, at 433 S. Main St., in West Hartford. The space, leased for seven years, includes more than 10,000 square feet, compared to the 6,500 square feet at the company's previous New Park Avenue headquarters. Keystone currently has about 32 employees, but the new office has the capacity for about 50 people, Kaufman said. "We'll hopefully get to that 50 sooner rather than later," said Kaufman, who declined to disclose revenue numbers but said the company has experi- enced "nice steady growth over the last four years." Murphy said Commercial Credit Group in 2020 also moved its corpo- rate office in Charlotte, North Caro- lina, to a larger space with long-term growth in mind. Like its parent compa- ny's office, Keystone's new home has better technological capabilities with updated computers, servers and telephone systems, she said. "We have to have the best tech- nology available, and it just wasn't possible in that older space," Murphy said. Kaufman said a key part of his company's success has been retaining talent. "We have tremendous longevity here," he said. "In 20 years of oper- ating since I started the business, I think we lost three people, and two of them were to retirement." Julie Murphy AT A GLANCE Company: Keystone Equipment Finance Industry: Equipment finance Top Executive: Todd Kaufman, President HQ: 433 S. Main St., West Hartford Employees: 32 Website: www.keystoneefc.com

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