Our Story

It’s fair to say that when Joe Wheatley was growing up, he didn’t dream of becoming MD of a leasing company. He couldn’t look further than a temporary job to build the funds he needed to travel the world. While saving up he took a position with a major finance company. To his surprise, he enjoyed the work, rising rapidly through the ranks.
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In the mid 1980s Joe started to notice a gap in the finance market. Smaller equipment suppliers were struggling to obtain facilities from the main leasing companies. This led Joe to leave his comfortable senior position and start his own company. System Rentals opened for business in June 1987, financing anything from the very latest word processors and electrostatic photocopiers to high-end mobile phones, such as the Motorola 8000x.

Steve Gouldsborough joined in 1991. He didn’t know what he wanted to do when he grew up and answered an ad in the local paper (remember those?) for an Administrator. He clicked instantly with Joe to create a dynamic business partnership that has thrived ever since. Steve became a Director of System Rentals in 1997. He still doesn’t know what he wants to do when he grows up.

Some of System Rentals’ original customers are still clients to this day, but over the decades the client base has become very diverse and the equipment that we finance is just so wide and varied – in fact, we still get regular enquiries to help businesses acquire equipment that we’ve never even heard of before let alone financed! Every day’s a school day.

​Joe and Steve remain the key contacts for all customers. The company has stayed true to its founding ethos – by remaining independent and flexible, it can provide exceptional service to every single client.