MASTERLEASE MEETS M&S CHALLENGE

Masterlease supports Marks & Spencer's 125th anniversary
September 2009 Marks & Spencer's Retail Leadership Team pose with one of the 3 series BMWs Masterlease selected specially for their 125 Fundraising Challenge tour

Masterlease switched from being a fleet provider to a charity fixer this month when it rose to a challenge set by Marks & Spencer to find seven ‘green’ cars for a charitable tour to support the M&S 125 Fundraising Challenge.

The challenge, timed to coincide with the retailer’s 125th anniversary, aimed to raise £1.25m for local and regional charities between 1st May and September 2nd this year.  It culminated with the M&S retail leadership team visiting every Marks & Spencer main chain store across the country to congratulate employees for their efforts and for breaking the fundraising target. Over £2million has been raised that will benefit hundreds of charities across the country.  

It made perfect sense for Marks & Spencer to approach Masterlease, its long term leasing partner, for advice and help to choose, then source the cars and to get them specially liveried for the tour. A key requirement was to ensure that the cars chosen supported Marks & Spencer’s Plan A environmental commitments.  Masterlease, working in partnership with BMW, chose to supply the retail chain with four 1 series and three 3 series BMWs because of their EfficientDynamics technology (which provides low CO2 emissions and high fuel efficiency, whilst still delivering an exhilarating driving experience).

Dominic Moran, head of strategic and corporate accounts, at Masterlease said: “Marks & Spencer has been a customer of ours for almost 25 years, and it’s done an amazing job raising more than £2 million for local and regional charities.  When given the opportunity to support the 125 tour, we were happy to help and were delighted that BMW shared our enthusiasm too.”

Mike Barry, Head of Sustainable Business at Marks & Spencer said: “I would like to congratulate our stores across the country for their hard work and dedication in raising these impressive amounts of money for their chosen charities.  I’d also like to thank Masterlease and BMW for providing us with the means to efficiently visit hundreds of our stores to applaud our staff for their remarkable fundraising efforts.”

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