On Wednesday, General Motors Financial highlighted the winners of its nationwide Auction of Excellence program.

This year marks the first time GM Financial has recognized two winners — one for open and one for closed sale performance. Recipients were chosen after reviewing each of the company’s 46 auction partners’ performances in customer service, marketing promotions, pre-sale activities and overall auction success.

Taking the honor as 2015 Open Sale Auction of the Year is Grand Rapids Auto Auction located in Jenison, Mich.

“I have been privileged to partner with GM Financial for more than 10 years, and it’s an honor for GRAA to be recognized with this coveted award,” said general manager Mark Capel, who received the award on behalf of Grand Rapids AA.

“GRAA has been named to this honor previously, so our staff has had a benchmark to operate at a very high level,” Capel continued. “It’s knowing those high standards that I want to thank GM Financial and my staff — senior management, operations, internal, external, transportation and our compliance department at GRAA — who worked so diligently to operate near perfection for the GM Financial account."

Receiving the accolade as the 2015 Closed Sale Auction of the Year is ABC St. Louis located in Centreville, Ill.

“Our auction team at ABC St. Louis is a very competitive group. It is such an honor to win the Auction of Excellence Award from GM Financial,” said ABC president Jason Hockett, who accepted the award on behalf of ABC St. Louis.

“GM Financial runs at some very strong auto auctions, so to be honored as the top-performing auction is a testimony to the hard work and service of Todd Ritter, general manager, and his team at ABC St. Louis,” Hockett added.

A quarterly and year-end overall winner is awarded to one auction in each of GM Financial Remarketing’s five regions. This year’s Regional Auction of Excellence winners are as follows:

— Midwest Region: Grand Rapids AA

— Northeast Region: Manheim Pennsylvania (Manheim, Pa.)

— Southeast Region: Manheim Georgia, Atlanta

— Southwest Region: ADESA Austin (Austin, Texas)

— West Coast Region: Manheim Portland (Portland, Ore.)

GM Financial senior vice president of remarketing Dan Heinrich extended his congratulations to all awarded auctions.

“Many of these auctions’ successes can be attributed to the extraordinary people who work the GM Financial lanes,” Heinrich said. “Without them, honoring each of these locations would not be possible. Thank you to everyone involved in moving GM Financial vehicles through the auction process. Congratulations to all of our winners.”