Mainebiz

V O L . X X I I I N O. X X V I I I J .D. Raymond Transport in Bangor got its start in 1999 when John Raymond bought his fi rst truck and trailer and began hauling material from Massachusetts to Maine. e company has expanded its fl eet and facili- ties and today the primary focus is on supplying bark mulch to wholesale customers throughout New England, handling about 540,000 yards of mulch per year. at work involves buying and selling raw bark and producing fi nished mulch. e company's forest products division, a supplier of biomass to wood- to-energy plants, off ers grinding services to logging contractors, landowners and municipalities. Raymond's work has required a lot of equipment over the years — loaders, excavators, grinders, trucks, trailers, bulldozers, harvesters, limbers and skidders. So that's meant taking out a lot of equipment loans. "A Peterson grinder costs $485,000, when we started — they're $830,000 now — and there's 'X' num- ber of stuff that goes along with it," says Raymond. "I needed a couple of new trucks, six new trailers, excavators and a grapple, because the business was growing. It's expensive." Financial institutions like Maine Financial Group in Scarborough and Machias Savings Bank have been instrumental in making that growth possible, Raymond says. And because operating his business pretty much takes up all his time, he appre- ciates the willingness of equipment loan offi cers to meet him on the fl y. "I've signed loan papers in the park-and-ride in Portland at 11 at night," he says. Serving backbone industries Equipment fi nance isn't one of those big-headline type of markets, but it's a signifi cant part of the fi nancial services industry. e Equipment Leasing and Finance Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group, represents 580 member companies and a sector valued at $1 trillion. It estimates that 78% of U.S. companies use some form of fi nancing when acquiring equipment, including loans, leases and lines of credit (excluding credit cards). e equipment leasing sector encom- passes not only banks, credit unions and specialized lenders, but also a range of businesses — including billing services, inspection services, consultants, col- lection fi rms, credit-and-risk management advisers, insurance companies, fi nance technology systems, HR consultants, lawyers and accountants. Tangible assets such as trucks and heavy machin- ery typically require a signifi cant amount of capital. In Maine, equipment fi nancing is part of the prod- uct lineup at many fi nancial institutions, which enable companies to fi nance anything from trucks and lobster boats to medical devices and digital machine tools. Maine businesses fi nanced $2.98 billion in capital equipment in 2015, according to the trade associa- tion's latest fi gures. at was a 7%, or $200 million, increase over 2014 amounts. "Many diff erent companies do equipment fi nance in Maine — some within the state, like other banks, credit unions, etc. — and others outside the state, like Caterpillar Financial and John Deere Financial," says Maine Financial Group President Scott Dillon. "It's a big market and it crosses borders and covers diff er- ent types of institutions." P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY F O C U S N OV E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 7 18 LEFT TO RIGHT: Jim Amabile, Maine Financial Group (MFG) vice president commercial services offi cer, Sue McCarthy, MFG vice president commercial services offi cer, John and Chris Woods, owners of Woods Excavating, Chris Case, MFG equipment fi nance specialist, and Scott Dillon, president of MFG, near equipment that MFG fi nanced for Woods Excavating at a worksite in Westbrook. Dillon says equipment loans range from $5,000 to $1.5 million Equipment finance market keeps Maine industry rolling

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