Interview with Frederic Lecat, Owner & Founder of Machinerycash

Machinerycash is the quick and easy solution for selling and getting valuations for second-hand earthmoving and materials handling equipment ......

How and when did you come up with the idea to create Machinerycash?

After having worked for 10 years in the construction industry, I noticed the difficulty dealers had to get financially covered on the risk taken for the take-back of used equipment from their end customers. Dealers aren’t specialized in evaluating used equipment prices and nobody really seemed to help them in anticipating this impact on their future sales. That’s how I got the idea to mutualize traders to purchases and that’s how our company was the first to digitalize the concept of cover price.

Machinerycash is a dedicated platform for professionals, how does it work?

The condition for participating on Machinerycash is to be either a construction equipment dealer or a rental company. We don’t work with end customers as other companies do as we consider this is the role of a dealer to regulate the used equipment retail prices within his region. The dealer must be in charge of the end customer.

Using the Machinerycash is very simple and intuitive, here are the steps a dealer must follow to put a machine on the platform.

Step 1 - The seller completes a mini data sheet on the platform concerning his machine for sale.

Step 2 - Machinerycash estimates the value of the machine and validates it in its trading room.

Step 3 - Within 48 hours, the international network of traders is put in competition on the digital platform, through a call for tenders, so that they, the dealers or rental companies, are given the highest possible price offer for their second-hand equipment (direct offer) or that of their end customers (cover price).

Step 4 - The seller can follow the progress of the call for tenders directly on his dashboard: first the estimate made by the Machinerycash experts, then the evolution of the call for tenders. He is finally informed of the amount of the highest bid either by e-mail or via his dashboard at the end of the 48 hours.

Step 5 - The seller is free to accept or reject the traders’ offer for a defined period of time. If accepted, the seller undertakes to sell the machine to the trader who has made the highest offer as soon as it is ready to be collected (with a maximum of 3 months).

Step 6 - Once the price offer has been accepted, Machinerycash takes care of the follow-up of the commercial transaction (organization of the invoicing, payment management, transport follow-up, possible disputes and evaluations).

Frederic, your company is based in Belgium but Machinerycash works internationally. From how many countries can a client receive an offer with your portal?

Our customers are likely to receive competitive offers from 15 different traders across Europe that operate in countries such as Belgium, Germany, France, Poland, Portugal, and Italy. This allows us to be competitive in various types of construction machinery like excavators, telescopic handlers, dumpers, and loaders. We have searched for the best traders in each age category and equipment type and we keep searching.

Recently, your company has been awarded of the MachineryScanner’s Certified Mark. How important is it today to provide a safe buying experience for users?

As we are in a growing phase, the MachineryScanner certification is important for us in order to give confidence to our customers in the excellence of our company and improve our digital reputation. We want to reassure our customers and partners about the professionalism and serious of Machinerycash.

Machinerycash has an excellent online reputation. Frederic, you know this business and niche very well, so how important is it to work on the online reputation?

First of all in the construction sector, reputation is probably the most important thing to be able to set up a network and conduct  business. Personally, I want to work with fair and honest people, both within my professional and private life. Integrity, transparency, and customer satisfaction are exactly the values I want to convey within Machinerycash and in the way we do business.

Today, digital technologies are driving the world. Strangely enough the construction equipment has been spared by this evolution in the last few years, but this trend is now over. For me, digitizing the construction equipment world was the logical evolution. Today, Machinerycash is a revolution for the sector, but tomorrow it will be the standard. The construction sector is asking for tools that make life easier for dealers so the online reputation will be a must for a company like ours opening new paths for international trade.

Your platform is dedicated to the construction equipment at the moment. Do you plan to enter into other sectors like the agricultural equipment?

Today our focus is on construction equipment and we plan to expand the segments on the platform by adding new sectors such as agriculture, trucks, and cranes but before we do this we will take our time to study the market, and see in which sector Machinerycash can be truly successful.