Fit-out now and pay by credit

The way fit-out and refurbishment projects are paid for is changing, according to Overbury managing director Chris Booth.
"There have been developments in how a fit-out or refurbishment project can be paid for. Overbury, for example, has access to a fit-out-specific sale and leaseback funding arrangement," he said. "Under the terms of the agreement, a client may lease the fit-out or refurbishment from a financier and make repayments over a given period. This removes the need to hold a capital budget or arrange lump-sum funding. The cost of the payments can be claimed against corporation tax, which can result in the entire project costing less," he explained.
"It's a practice well used in other areas of corporate spend, for example cars and IT equipment, and can be equally applied to spend on fit-out or refurbishment," he added.
Booth, previously divisional managing director at Overbury, plans to expand the business both geographically and by sector over the next few years.
"Overbury will continue to do what it does best and enhance its offering with initiatives like driving best practice across health and safety - 95% of all Overbury site workers have CSCS cards and we want to improve that further: offering sale and leaseback facility; an environmental policy; the introduction of a no rentention scheme with subcontractors and continuing with our Perfect Delivery programme (CJ 8 January)."
A third of Overbury's workload comes from the public sector, which Booth feels will remain the same in 2004. He also feels the commercial/financial sector is showing signs of recovery.
"Overbury's increasing workload in the public sector has supported it in a difficult market but I see the commercial/financial sector showing signs of recovery," he added.