VOLVO'S newly established in-house leasing operation has more than doubled its contract hire business in its first year of trading. Volvo Car Finance opened its doors for business in January after the Volvo UK wound up its joint venture with UDT and brought the operation in-house with finance from its Swedish parent company.

Since then, the leasing operation has grown its retail and corporate business, but the new set-up is emphatically focused on expanding the latter. From total business of about 15,500 units, Volvo Car Finance has written some 2,000 leasing contracts - up from 800 last year - the majority of which were for fleets and small businesses.

Market development manager David Baddeley accepts that the joint venture with UDT was a useful learning experience, but said Volvo was now ready to go it alone - giving it the flexibility to refine its funding packages to meet the needs of its customers more closely.

By the turn of the century, Baddeley envisaged a total turnover of about 20,000 units, with the retail core of 14,000 traditional hire purchase vehicles supplemented by 2,500 contract hire deals, 1,000 personal contract purchase schemes and a further 2,500 vehicles funded by a variety of new products.