HISTORY

WHERE WE HAVE COME FROM

Find out a little more about the 29 year history we are so proud of

the beginning

In 1986, Gina Christopher went to college in Brighton to study accountancy.  She had a placement lined up on completion with a Chartered Accountants’ Firm in Southampton.  However for various reasons she decided not to complete the course and started working instead as an accounts assistant for Cunard.  

After only 9 months as there was no opportunity for progression, she sought a new challenge in the billing department at British Gas.  Again this did not provide the challenge she was looking for and helped her come to the decision that large companies were not the right place for her.

She found a role within a small asset finance brokerage, and progressed from administration to sales within 3 months.  In the next 5 years she increased business volumes whilst developing the company’s systems and introducing its first database.  The company then changed hands, and at the age of 25 Gina started her own business.

the name

The name, Focus Leasing, was decided after many agonising hours, and was finally decided upon as the whole ethos of the business was to focus on our customers’ needs.

history - press release

First press release in the “old days” before websites and social media 

1994 - 2004

Focus Leasing starting trading on 1 February 1994 from a small office in Hedge End.  The “team” consisted of Gina and one admin person.  When we started everything was done by phone, fax or post.  

We grew to a team of 5 before outgrowing the space, progressed to using email and had a one page “website”.  

We were the first leasing broker to provide a quoting tool which we called “AutoQuote”.  This was posted out on floppy disk initially, then CD. 

Take a look at the photos below – don’t you just love the monitors, not to mention the green walls and carpet to match our logo!

2004 - 2009

Following continued business growth, we moved to larger offices in Ower near Romsey in 2004, a former post office.  Ken Christopher joined Focus as a partner and we continued to grow our team. 

In 2007 a new website was developed, including AutoQuote Online, a web based version of the quoting tool we pioneered.  As you can see from the photos below we upgraded our furniture and had flat screen monitors!

2009 - 2018

The banking crisis in 2009 coincided with the office lease expiring.  The decision was therefore made to downsize and move offices to “weather the storm”. 

We moved to a converted cart-house on the Broadlands Estate in Romsey.  Our  business processes moved from a flat file database to a CRM package which was customised in house to our exact needs,

2018 to date

In May 2018, we transferred Focus Leasing, which had traded as a sole trader then a partnership, to a limited company, Focus Asset Finance Limited.

Whilst we loved our location on the Broadlands Estate, the broadband access was to say the least inadequate.  With more and more systems becoming cloud based and reliant on this, we made the decision to relocate to address the issue.

In October 2018 we moved to the London Road Office Park in Salisbury.  Since then we have been reviewing our brand and systems.  We have now re-branded to Focus Finance Limited to better describe the wide range of solutions we offer to UK businesses.

Some people dream of success, while others wake up and work hard at it.

focus first logo
old logo
current logo

Thank you for reading a bit about our history.  We are looking forward to building our loyal client base further over the next quarter of a century.

are you calling about a direct debit you don't recognise?

We have published this message as the payment that has been collected from you has nothing to do with our company. We are an asset finance company in Hampshire, we do not collect direct debits from any customers and only deal with businesses.

We receive many calls about this, as we have a similar name to the company that is collecting these direct debits. The company responsible is Focus Finance and Marketing Limited. Their website is below, however they do not answer their phone or respond:

https://www.focusfinance.co.uk/

Our understanding is that bank details are being obtained from people unknowingly, or on the pretence of providing a loan, and this is a fraudulent company.

We would therefore request you contact your bank to report this and ask them to escalate to their fraud team and stop further payments from being taken.

Please also report Focus Finance & Marketing Limited to:

ActionFraud
Financial Conduct Authority
Information Commissioners Office

We are now at a point where this is impacting our business, so we are also doing everything we can to get them shut down so your help would be appreciated.

Please feel free to copy the above message to provide to your bank.