Restaurant equipment and restaurant financing

Starting a restaurant is a big deal. You want to start on the right foot so you are producing the best food and building your customer base as quickly as possible. This is only achievable with quality commercial restaurant equipment that will speed up your workflow.

SilverChef provides good quality, stringently tested, used restaurant equipment to get you started without massive upfront costs. Some crucial restaurant equipment rentals include commercial freezers and fridges; pass through and under counter dishwashers; bain maries; hot food display cases; stand mixers and prep benches to name a few. Depending on your cuisine, we even provide sous vide machines, tandoor ovens and sushi machines.

So, you’ve decided to take the plunge and open or expand your restaurant. The first thing to do is talk to a financial institution of your choice and secure a business loan for covering operating costs, renovating and wages.  

SilverChef can help alleviate the financial strain by taking the cost of commercial restaurant equipment off the initial capital outlay. If you're looking for flexibility, and you're not 100% sure of the correct size and model of commercial restaurant equipment you're choosing, you could opt for our Rent-Try-Buy product, which allows you to try the equipment in your restaurant before you decide whether to buy, upgrade or return.  

If you know what you want, you're financing more than $10,000 of commercial restaurant equipment, and you've been in business for more than 12 months, you could choose our Lease-to-Keep option. With Lease-to-Keep you choose your restaurant equipment, make monthly payments over a four-year term, and own your equipment at the end.

Renting commercial restaurant equipment can be a good alternative to buying outright for a number of reasons. Firstly, there are a lot of costs involved in setting up and running a commercial kitchen, so choosing to rent commercial restaurant equipment can leave you more money for running your business and other expenses.

Secondly, there may be tax benefits to renting restaurant equipment – it’s important you discuss these with a qualified tax advisor before making any decisions.

Finally, with SilverChef’s Rent-Try-Buy you get additional flexibility over typical restaurant rental products. You can decide to upgrade your restaurant supplies in the first 12 months if you need something bigger and better (in the same equipment category e.g. upgrade rented fridge to a bigger fridge); you can also decide to purchase it and get a 60% net rental rebate on your payments so far (up to 12 months).

At the end of your 12-month contract, you can decide whether to keep renting your commercial restaurant equipment, work towards ownership, or return. Please note that if you decide to purchase your restaurant equipment after the end of your 12-month term, the net rental rebate drops to 25% after 12 months.

The difference between leasing and renting has to do with the length of term – with the length of a lease typically being longer. SilverChef offers a rental product -Rent-Try-Buy, and a finance lease product – Lease-to-Keep. They are different in several important ways.

With Rent-Try-Buy, you rent your commercial restaurant equipment and make weekly rental payments for a 12-month term, while retaining the option to purchase your restaurant equipment or upgrade it during the term.

At the end of the 12-month rental term, you have the additional options to return, continue renting or work towards ownership with our Easy Own® product.

With Lease-to-Keep you sign up for a 48-month or 60-month term, make monthly lease payments and at the end of the term you own the commercial restaurant equipment*.

_{*providing the last payment has been made and customer is not in breach of the agreement.}

When you choose Rent-Try-Buy to finance your new or second hand restaurant equipment, it’s a good idea to be sure that you’re happy to rent it for the full initial 12-month contract (with the option to upgrade or purchase during the term). This is because, if you decide to return your rented commercial restaurant equipment before the end of the term, you will still be required to pay all the unpaid rental payments up to the end of contract term.

As the renter or lessee of the commercial restaurant equipment, you are responsible for properly insuring it, and arranging and paying for all servicing and maintenance on the restaurant equipment. If the restaurant equipment breaks down this is a manufacturer warranty issue and you will need to contact the manufacturer to arrange repair or replacement as per their terms and conditions.