Originally Posted by
Doyle
Don't get me wrong, I don't want the finance business sold, however rural finance is not what it used to be. Once upon a time everyone had seasonal finance from their suppliers, these days most farmers work wih a large bank overdraft at suprisingly compeitive rates to keep things simple. Most the people using wrightsons etc for seasonal type finance now are the ones whose od is maxed.
Financing herds and land and bulding is still profitable but hardly essential to wrightsons business, they will only really pick up customers who fail bank lending criteria. I'm no longer of the view that a finance business is still essential to a rural services operation, however it is sill a well run profitable finance unit and I would prefer them to keep it.