Allan English founded SilverChef in 1986.
Rent-Try-Buy® was invented almost a decade later, when Allan saw a need to help Australian businesses get access to revolutionary new pizza ovens.
Rent-Try-Buy enabled customers to try the oven in their business, and then buy it or return it.
This unique finance product is still the cornerstone of our offering today.
In 2010 Allan and Tessa English set up the English Family Foundation, through the donation of half of their family’s shareholding in SilverChef.
The foundation established Opportunity International Australia as the cornerstone of its grant portfolio. Through this partnership with Opportunity, SilverChef helped lift more than 1.5 million people out of poverty around the world.
In 2020 Allan was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for philanthropy and services to the community.
In 2019 SilverChef was acquired by Next Capital, a leading Australian private equity firm.
This provided the necessary capital for SilverChef to grow globally.
Next Capital established a new board of directors and appointed Phillip Godkin as Chief Executive Officer.
In 2021, SilverChef acquired Econolease, one of Canada’s leading equipment finance providers. With this acquisition, we became the global SilverChef Group.
Econolease is a well-established provider of hospitality equipment finance, with a team of more than 60 talented people.
The Econolease acquisition has enabled SilverChef to rapidly grow our business in Canada and broaden our geographical footprint.
