UK broker new European partner for bioscience company
Oak Leasing appears to be crafting a niche for
itself in vendor finance for the medical and lab equipment sector,
signing into a partnership with global manufacturer Accuri last
month.
The new vendor agreement, negotiations for
which began in November 2009 with Accuri’s managing director Bob
Penny, is the fifth partnership that Oak, a UK lease brokerage, has
made in the sector.
In last year’s third quarter, Oak was named
European leasing partner for American chromatograph manufacturer
Semba Bioscience.
As with the Semba agreement, Oak will act as
Accuri’s leasing partner for all European sales, providing finance
in the UK, Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden,
Norway, Denmark and Finland. Outside Europe, Accuri uses three
other funders, which it did not name.
Also as in the Semba arrangement, Accuri got
in contact with Oak through its website, which has used search
engine optimisation to help make a presence for itself in search
engines.
Oak is offering both three- and five-year
leases on Accuri’s flow cytometer packages, with monthly rentals on
three year agreements ranging between £1,000 (€1,140) and £2,000
per month.
According to Oak Leasing’s managing director,
John Barter, the introducer is looking to finalise another vendor
partnership in the sector within the next month.
Fred Crawley
• Accuri is an American manufacturer of
flow cytometers based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Flow cytometers, used
by biologists and medical researchers to analyse cell contents,
have a reputation for large size, cost and maintenance
requirements. Accuri, however, is known for producing more
lightweight and “user-friendly” cytometers, and has designed its
own range of software aimed at making operation of equipment
easier. Prices for systems range between around €25,000 and
€50,000, with ancillary costs for software, reagents and
accessories. These figures are lower than the industry average, an
advantage that Accuri has sought to increase by pursuing a leasing
option for its global sales.