Chef Magazine Case Study:

Leasing as a Recipe for Restaurant’s Success

Imagine if you were putting the final touches on building the restaurant of your dreams only to find out that you need to replace an important kitchen appliance, like your commercial fridge or cooler. And this is happening just days before your grand opening. Your start-up capital is depleted, and you don’t have the option of using your high interest credit card. What could you do?

The answer is as simple as leasing.

Whether it’s a stove, freezer, grinder or countertop, a restaurant needs a variety of expensive tools to stay competitive, unique and up to code. Leasing is the number one funding source for the restaurant industry. Equipment leasing and financing is common. What a lot of business owners don’t know, however, is that equipment leasing can be pretty easy.

Restaurant owner Michael Santosuosso leased a full line of kitchen equipment for his new restaurant. After doing some initial industry research, he received a mailing from Five Point Capital (FPC), a San Diego-based equipment leasing firm.

“I liked the fact that FPC was very detailed, but very simple in how they worked with me,” Santosuosso said. “My FPC sales representative was very knowledgeable and totally committed to getting my equipment lease approved. He made sure I was successful from the beginning, providing me with all the information I needed to complete the transaction.”

An FPC Lease Manager works to match a business’ budget to obtain the equipment it needs to finance. Equipment leasing provides tax benefits and frees up capital to invest in revenue-generating activities.

The Benefits of Lease Financing

Equipment leasing has benefited thousands of businesses and helped many restaurant owners like Santosuosso build their business with no headaches. Because of their relationships with financial institutions, most leasing firms, like Five Point Capital, use a process that quickly identifies and scores the credit ability of the business owner with no financials required for equipment leases under $100,000. This benefits the restaurant owner as it allows for some of the quickest response rates in the industry. You won’t need a down payment and many of the ‘soft costs’ such as delivery, training and installation can be included in your lease. One hundred percent of your cost is included in your equipment financing, freeing up your extra capital for other start up costs. No down payment is required and 100 percent of the equipment cost is financed.