Business View Magazine November-December 2018

280 281 MERRIMAK CAPITAL COMPANY, LLC We offer equipment lease finance programs to companies nationwide. With our rapid-turnaround loan approval and funding process, we’ll help you make important business decisions quickly and smoothly. To learn more about our Lease Finance Programs, Loans, Terms and Rates, contact Conor Pennell today. First Eagle Bank is an entrepreneurial, independent bank, focused on developing long lasting relationships with our customers and our community. 312.614.3524 www.febank.com PREFERRED VENDOR n First Eagle Bank www.febank.com around the globe and offers foreign currency exchange. In a largely unregulated and competitive marketplace, Kariotis says that Merrimak’s competitive advantage lies in its ability to remarket the equipment it recovers itself, rather than giving it to broker/dealers at wholesale rates.“If you don’t take the extra steps to maximize resale values, 20 to 40 percent of the revenue is left on the table, which is money that can be given back to the customer in the form of a credit to accommodate damaged equipment charges” she notes.“Merrimakmaximizes the resale value and delivers that savings to our cus- tomers.” “Another reason Merrimak is so compet- itive is a result of the way the company is capitalized,”explains Kariotis.“We utilize our own funds; we’re building our own balance sheet and we guarantee all the residual risk. We leverage our own net worth to get equity dollars -we’re not using private equity or subordinated debt; it’s our own money that we’re investing to create equity and we rare- ly syndicate leases,which makes us more competitive.” “We don’t employ the typical sales force that makes 20 percent of the margins off the top,which is substantial,” she continues.“The sales originate at the executive level and then we have very strong support teams–a pricing team that runs all the proposals and an asset resale team responsible for all the remarketing at the end of lease.This strategy gives the companymore control and allows us to be more competitive.We have a very effi- cient, but relatively small,workforce relative to the hundreds of millions of dollars of leases that we originate.” “Finally, our customers are extremely well-sup- ported,” she concludes.“We’re very customer-ser- vice oriented and we respond very quickly.We act as a partner and we’re not just working in our own self-interest, but in the mutual interest of our customers.” High on Kariotis’ agenda for both the near and long-term future is sustainable growth.“Merrimak is an innovative and growing company,” she states. “We just purchased a new building for our corpo- rate headquarters that will accommodate our pro- jected growth over the next five years with a large warehouse space for equipment remarketing. Last year,we opened another warehouse in Ohio which is working out well for reselling used lift trucks and IT equipment.The Ohio warehouse serves as a central hub that supports Canada and the east- ern corridor.We’re continuing to bring on ten to fifteen new customers, annually, that typically fall into the Fortune 500 or the like profile, and we’re consistently expanding the existing accounts that we’re already working with.” Over the next several years, Kariotis says she anticipates the company’s annual earnings con- tinuing to increase approximately 25 percent over revenues.“I’m also hoping that in five years,we have solidly engaged 50 percent of the Fortune 500 as active customers and that we are ranked as one of the top three independent lessors in the industry.We will accomplish this by continuing to be transparent and introducing custom solutions and lease structures that drive the lowest cost of use for our customers.”