Ex-LeasePlan executive Jonathan Wise launches Vavoom

JONATHAN Wise, a former national sales manager at broker funder LeasePlan, has launched his own brokerage called Vavoom.

Based in Manchester – increasingly the epicentre of leasing broker firms – Vavoom is part of the Vavoom Finance Group offering vehicle leasing and asset finance to customers.

Currently Wise is supported by three highly experienced leasing executives, the leadership team offering 70 years of valuable leasing experience between them.

• Will Faulkner is broker sales manager and joins after more than 10 years with Nationwide Vehicle Contracts as a vehicle leasing consultant.
• Allan Clarke is supplier and project lead manager and joins after 15 years with Lex Autolease where he was most recently implementation manager.
• Gary Pywell takes the role of senior leasing consultant having spent the last year as a regional manager for broker funder and leasco Agility Fleet.

Within the next five years, the ambitious Cheadle-based business expects to be employing 50 staff.

Key to Vavoom’s market position is its climate positive stance, similar to companies such as Swedish furniture store Ikea, that will save more greenhouse gases than the company and its actions generate.

If I didn’t have a different angle then I think it would be brave entering such a saturated market. As well as our climate positive approach, we are a more thought-based consultancy broker.

Jonathan Wise, founder and operations director, Vavoom Leasing

Wise says Vavoom will plant 42 trees for every vehicle it sells. He says it’s important for customers to understand the impact of the vehicle on society, so customers can make intelligent and knowledgable choices about their vehicle selection. And the move towards electric vehicles EV is a perfect catalyst for this, he adds.

But the business goes further than climate positive leasing. Wise says the whole business is dedicated to being climate positive.

“Anybody who works here takes personal responsibility by contributing to reducing carbon emissions, such as commuting to the office. Our offices are also climate positive and we do as much as we can to be paperless. Our merchandise is either made using recyclable plastics or sustainable bamboo. We don’t believe in paper business cards, nor the plastic sleeves that come with them. Our business cards are digital, tappable to people’s phones and made from eight times recyclable plastics.”

The full suite of asset finance offerings are due to be launched later in the year, providing asset financing for equipment and vehicles as well as at-home chargers for everyone from single customers to large fleets.

“If we sell an electric car, we will also ensure that the customer has the ability to charge the vehicle at home before they receive their new electric car,” Wise adds. “We are here to provide end-to-end support for customers transitioning to hybrid and electric.”