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Auto Trader UK and Cox Automotive have revealed plans related to the formation of a new automotive wholesale marketplace joint venture.
Pending clearance from the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK, the new JV will see three businesses amalgamated onto a single platform. Cox Automotive will transfer its Dealer-Auction.com and Manheim Online businesses to the joint venture, while Auto Trader will transfer Smart Buying (formally known as Autotrade-mail), its retailer-to-retailer platform.
Ultimately, the intention is for the new business to provide a connected platform that enables a complete end-to-end solution to increase speed of sale and profitability for vendors, while giving buyers access to a single, data-driven wholesale marketplace. The platform will also offer access to various partners, including NextGear Capital funding, Auto Trader and Motors.co.uk consumer listings, logistics through Movex and Motor Trade Delivery, and Manheim’s services to inspect, image, recondition, and prepare vehicles.
The new business, potentially billed as Dealer Auction, will be headed up by Le Etta Pearce. Currently group sales director at Auto Trader, Pearce was previously head of the retail divsion of Manheim, the remarketing division of Cox Automotive.
Using Dealer Auction, customers from the retail, fleet and manufacturing sectors will gain a more efficient route to disposing of vehicle stock. The service will offer a wide range of vehicles for purchase, supported by the data and tools needed to make the best vehicle selections. Teams with significant experience in digital, wholesale and retail solutions will also offer customer support.
Vehicles from fleet and lease companies will be available through the new marketplace. The system will offer data metrics to create the largest community of UK vehicle buyers.
Martin Forbes, CEO of Cox Automotive in the UK, said: “Cox Automotive and Auto Trader have a shared vision to transform the wholesale automotive market in the UK for the benefit of our current and future customers. Our core strengths are extremely complementary and we believe that Auto Trader’s digital and data expertise combined with Cox Automotive’s wholesale channels and vehicle handling capabilities will deliver a market-changing B2B platform. We are confident that this will be a long term and very successful partnership.”
Auto Trader Chief Executive Officer, Trevor Mather, added: “The way in which vehicles currently move around the UK automotive ecosystem is overly complex and inefficient, and Auto Trader has the digital and data assets that can make it a quicker, more convenient and cheaper process for all parties. However, we know that we will have an even better chance of disrupting the market by partnering with an established player which knows this particular industry intimately.
“I am delighted that we are creating this joint venture alongside Cox Automotive, who we have found to be forward thinking and culturally aligned to our business. We believe that together we can fundamentally improve and lead change in this market, for the benefit of both wholesalers and retailers alike.”
Outside of the joint venture, the wider Cox Automotive and Auto Trader businesses will remain distinct and continue to operate as normal and in competition with each other.