Less than a month after purchasing all eight Brasher's auctions, ADESA has made yet another big auction purchase move and signed a definitive agreement to buy Sanford Auto Dealers Exchange.
The auction is located in Sanford, Fla. ADESA now has five locations in this region, including ADESA Sarasota, ADESA Tampa, ADESA Jacksonville and ADESA Ocala.
ADESA said in its news release that the auction will change names to ADESA Orlando.
SADE president Mike Tumminello will stay on as general manager.
With the purchase of SADE also comes the purchase of the Ocala Auto Dealers Exchange, which will merge into the existing ADESA Ocala auction.
It is expected the transaction will close next quarter.
“The addition of Sanford Auto Dealers Exchange expands our geographic footprint in the large, robust car market in central Florida,” ADESA president and chief executive officer Stéphane St-Hilaire said in the news release. “It is the perfect fit for bringing our end-to-end vehicle remarketing services and comprehensive online solutions to customers in and around that thriving market. I look forward to having Mike Tumminello and his experienced team join ADESA.”
Tumminello added: “For the past 24 years, Sanford Auto Dealers Exchange has strived to provide the best customer service possible to car dealers in the Orlando area. I am proud of the accomplishments of my team, and I look forward to taking our service to the next level with ADESA.”
In almost nine years of covering the auto auction business, one of the coolest parts of the job has been to see how the people behind these auctions and the remarketing industry, in general, selflessly pitch in when the going gets tough for a neighbor.
We see that each year when National Auto Auction Association members share their “Auction Life” photos and when we hear stories about auctions lending a helping hand when it comes to things like flood relief.
On Thursday, I saw yet another example of the auction business lending a helping hand.
An email message from NAAA was forwarded to me about Darcy Cassidy, the young daughter of an auctioneer who has fought cancer since age 4 (she turns 12 on Saturday).
NAAA said in the message that her family will have to cover a trial chemotherapy treatment, and that a GoFundMe page has been set up to assist financially.
More information on the GoFundMe efforts can be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/darcyraye.
Missouri Auto Auction will play host to the top auctioneers from North America and the U.K. during this year’s World Automobile Auctioneers Championship.
Scheduled for April 15 at the auction’s Columbia, Mo. location, the event will also be webcast live on NIADA.tv starting at 8 a.m. (CST).
"We are pleased to sponsor this year's World Auctioneer Championships in partnership with the National Auto Auction Association and Nextgear Capital," said Kevin Brown, owner and general manager of Missouri Auto Auction. "And we are particularly excited to host the event here at our auction. We're extremely proud of our facility, which has undergone quite a transformation over the past several years as a result of a series of renovations and expansions.
"It is not often that an auction has the opportunity to open its doors to people from all areas of the auction business: auctioneers, ringmen, independent auction owners, corporate auction officials and national consignors. We're looking forward to welcoming them all, and showing them the best that Missouri Auto Auction has to offer."
This year’s judges include:
Spanky Assiter, the president of the National Auctioneers Association
Tom Moore, director of remarketing at Ally Financial
Jim Jackson, auction manager for ARI
Charles Nichols, BSC America’s president
Mike Scott, remarketing manager at Consumer Portfolio Services
Eldon Booth, vice president of operations, west for KAR/ADESA/IAA
Julie Picard, regional vice president of the west for Manheim
Frank Hackett, NAAA’s chief executive officer
Brian Geitner, NextGear Capital’s president
Mitch O’Neil, vice president of asset remarketing for Santander
John Elizaga, director of vehicle remarketing at EMKAY
Chad Baily, president of Akron Auto Auction.
In other auction news, Flint Auto Auction will host its annual Corvettes and Classics sale on April 13, which will feature 250 Corvettes and 200 classic and specialty units.
In conjuction with the auction’s regular weekly sale, total consignment is expected to eclipse 3,000 units.
"Over the years, the Corvettes and Classics Sale has become a grand tradition at Flint Auto Auction," said John Luce, the auction’s owner. "The Corvette was 'born' at the General Motors Plant right here in Flint, Michigan in 1953, so we're always excited to commemorate that red-letter event in automotive history by holding this annual sale."
For more information about Flint Auto Auction and its upcoming sales, visit its site here.
Insurance Auto Auctions has announced the debut of its Title Procurement Dashboard, a new feature within CSAToday, the company’s online vehicle inventory management and analysis tool.
The Title Procurement Dashboard is the newest member to be added to the IAA Total Loss Solution suite of offerings that aim to help improve customer satisfaction and effectively manage costs during the total loss claims process.
According to the company, the solution helps improve the management of the title-procurement process and provides IAA Title Services customers with the status of their documents to enable the loss claims process to be handled more efficiently.
“The added capabilities of the Title Procurement Dashboard allow insurance carriers to be alerted to delays and problem documents,” said Pat Walsh, IAA’s senior vice president of business development. “The loss to claim settlement timeline is decreased through improved visibility, and this can influence policyholder satisfaction and retention. The faster a total loss claim is settled, the higher probability a policyholder will remain a customer of the insurance company.”
Utilizing the dashboard, customers can identify where they are experiencing problems or delays and then address those individual files that are holding up their timeline targets.
“IAA designed this dashboard feature to build on our comprehensive solution for insurance clients,” said John Kett, IAA’s president and chief executive officer. “We are committed to helping our customers reduce costs, improve cycle times and increase employee engagement within the total loss claims process.”
Dominion Dealer Solutions announced the launch of its Dominion Recon solution on Wednesday, its newest process-based software platform for tracking and managing the used-vehicle reconditioning process for dealers.
Dominion Recon is now available to dealers as part of the company’s Inventory Manager.
“Dealers clearly understand the impact the reconditioning process has on dealerships’ financial performance,” said Todd Price, DDS national operations manager for inventory. “Tools such as Dominion Recon provide the transparency and automation needed to effectively manage this.”
According to the company, dealers using Dominion Recon will see a reduction in time to market and greater accountability and tracking in getting used vehicles prepared for the retail process. They can use the solution to alert and deploy necessary resources and hold dealership departments and service providers accountable for any time-related delays.
For more information about Dominion Recon, visit Dominion Dealer Solutions’ site here.
Last month showed some price softening in off-rental wholesale cars, according to the latest Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index analysis, which said that not since 2013 has the straight average of rental-risk auction prices been this low in February.
Even with rental-risk units having 11.5 percent less mileage on them, prices still fell 4.1 percent year-over-year in February, Cox Automotive chief economist Tom Webb said in the report.
He also pointed out that Manheim’s rental-specific index, which is adjusted for “broad” mix and mileage changes, dropped 5.5 percent.
From a volume standpoint, you can expect more to flow into auctions, Webb said, pointing out a near 13-percent rise in year-to-date sales into rental fleets.
“Given indications that rental car companies are over-fleeted, we expect this pace of deliveries to slow in the coming months and for the number of units entering the wholesale market to rise,” Webb said.
Off-rental volumes
Along those same lines, in the 2016 Used Car Market Report, Webb acknowledges the “justifiable concern” that off-rental pricing will be hurt by the surge in off-lease cars. But he also points out that OEM incentive and inventory practices will play a bigger role in the fate of off-rental prices — which is typically the case, he said.
“On that front, manufacturers, of late, have been better at equating production with demand. But the real test will come in future years when the pace of new-vehicle sales levels off. Most rental car companies are expecting — and planning for — a higher per-vehicle monthly depreciation cost in 2016, but nothing like 2008 and 2009,” Webb said in that report.
Going back to volumes, the Used Car Market Report projects the off-rental wholesale volume should hover in the 1.8 million-unit range for next few years, which compares to 1.66 million off-rental cars in 2015.
“The future growth in off-rental volumes should mirror the growth in the total rental fleet size, as we foresee no significant change in holding periods,” Webb said.
Want to know the best bargain in the automotive industry today? It’s the average selling fee for consignors at wholesale auto auctions in the U.S.
Let's have some fun and look at a typical fee of, say, $100 — and I am being generous, as we all know, when chain auctions are offering less than that with transportation, car washes and month-end rebates, all deducted from that price.
What do auctions provide in the way of value?
— Pickup and delivery while paying all the related fees to simplify the process for their customers, including repo fees and related
— Thousands of acres of secure and paved storage
— Condition reports with qualified staff and auto grade technology in many cases interfaced with the customer's proprietary software and/or AutoIMS
— CFPB compliance measures and responsibilities
— Bonding, liability and garage insurance
— State-of-the-art simulcast products along with multi-image uploads
— Backside guarantees of announcement issues through the NAAA arbitration policy
— Title services
— ACH services to insure day-after-sale payments while floating the buying side
— Access to flooring companies to insure that a wider base of buyers can bid on their products
— Marketing both in-lane and online and promotional activities along with detailed-oriented and firewall-protected websites and databases
— Audit compliance
— State and local DMV compliance
— Memberships to national industry associations, state independent auto dealers associations and subscriptions to VHR and vehicle pricing guides
— Advertising both digitally and in print media
— Reconditioning, mechanical, PDR and transportation services
Not a bad package of services, processed by well trained and experienced employees.
Well you might be saying, Jim, what is your point here?
It's a simple one: Transferring costs over the past 10-15 years from the seller to the buyer is a short-term vision that in the case of many high volume units just leads to less returns in the sale price or flat out less total sales penetration in consignment in general. This then leads to consignors going around auctions to try and drive returns and hoped for increased distribution.
Giving away anything all the time, clearly states you place no value on it; and in this case it's your service. Time for us to give it the value it truly deserves.
Editor’s Note: Jim DesRochers is vice president at Dealers Auto Auction of the Southwest. As with any contributed content, the opinions expressed in this and other editorial columns are solely that of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of Auto Remarketing or its parent company.
Manheim has announced its new general manager of Manheim Pennsylvania.
Serving in his 15th year with Manheim and taking the reins as GM of Manheim’s home auction location is Joey Hughes.
In the new role, Hughes will be responsible for all aspects of the auction’s operations, over both its internal workforce of 1,600 full- and part-time employees as well as externally over Manheim’s large customer base.
“Joey’s long career in the automotive business, beginning as a small dealer in North Carolina, make him a strong fit for a role that requires exceptional skills in cultivating customer relationships and driving performance,” said Mike McKinney, Manheim’s vice president, national division. “Joey has been a champion of employee and leader development from day one, and I look forward to seeing the enhancements he’ll bring to our Pennsylvania operations.”
Hughes joined the company in 2001 as a dealer sales representative before moving on to being fleet lease manager and assistant general manager and eventually general manager at Manheim Darlington.
He has also served as the vice president of the Carolinas and general manager of Manheim Statesville in North Carolina.
Taking over at the Pennsylvania location, Hughes will see over the more than 10,000 vehicles Manheim sells there each week. He will also take over Manheim’s conversation and community service initiatives – according to Manheim, the Pennsylvania location operates the largest state-of-the-art reconditioning center and water conversation center, the latter which reduces its daily water demand by 60 percent.
Outside of Manheim, Hughes is also a member of the National Auto Auction Standards committee and also serves as its treasurer of the Southern Chapter.
FORTUNE magazine recently released its 100 Best Companies to Work For and, as usual, several companies involved in the automotive industry made the list.
These companies include the likes of ARI, Capital One Financial, CarMax, Credit Acceptance, JM Family Enterprises, and USAA.
CarMax celebrates its 12th consecutive year on the list.
“Our associates take pride in maintaining the strong CarMax culture of transparency, respect and integrity,” said Tom Folliard, CarMax’s chief executive officer. “By investing in our associates, we are equipping them to provide the exceptional experience our customers deserve.”
Companies that are included in the listing are ranked by FORTUNE based on its extensive employee surveys, which are given to a random sample of employees from each company. The survey asks employees about their attitudes about management’s credibility, overall job satisfaction and camaraderie.
Companies are also judged based on their pay and benefits programs and a series of open-ended questions about their hiring practices, methods of internal communication, training, recognition programs and diversity efforts.
ARI, a global fleet services provider, was acknowledged on the list for the fourth year in a row.
“We are incredibly honored to be named to Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list for a fourth consecutive year,” said Chris Conroy, ARI’s president. “Being named to the list year after year is entirely due to our people, who are not only the best at what they do when it comes to fleet management, but also go the extra mile when it comes to their colleagues, offering support when it is needed, celebrating successes when they happen and pitching in to overcome any challenges that come along. It is that atmosphere of teamwork, cooperation, understanding and support that makes ARI such a special place to work.”
For a full listing of FORTUNE’s 100 Best Companies to Work for, click here.
Speaking of the best places to work, do you work at an auction and think it’s one of the best? Designed and intended for individual auction locations, this free workplace study conducted by Auto Remarketing and Best Companies Group is currently working to compile the Best Auto Auctions to Work For.
For individual auction locations to participate, the general manager/leader of that auction needs to opt in at this website by April 22: www.bestautoauctionstoworkfor.com.
More information about the program can be also be found here.
Canada-based automotive technology company Selectbidder has recently penned a partnership with one of California’s largest independent auctions: North Hollywood’s own All Valley Dealers Auto Auction.
AVDA Auction plans to use Selectbidder’s platform to manage real-time bids between its network of dealers for their respective trade-ins.
“This new technology is important to our business,” said Victor Soghomonian, the auction’s owner. “Using Selectbidder will help our dealers buy and sell more cars straight from their lots because they will be dealing with us at the point of trade. This makes the whole process faster and easier.”
Meanwhile, 3,500 miles away, in Moncton, New Brunswick, Selectbidder continues its roll of signing auctions in the United States, including other, previously signed independent auctions in Florida, Maine and Pennsylvania.
The Selectbidder platform itself is fairly simple: a selling dealer scans the VIN and takes a few photos of a potential trade-in vehicle and posts the information along with a condition report to Selectbidder. A notification is sent to select dealers in the auction’s network of dealers and interested dealers can make bids on the vehicle in real time. The dealer can then show this offer to their customer during negotiations to ensure they know they’re getting a fair deal.
“We’re pleased to welcome AVDA Auction to the growing Selectbidder family,” said Sean Liptay, Selectbidder’s chief executive officer. “They are part of a growing wave of independent auctions who see how technology can make their business more efficient and profitable. We look forward to helping them make the trade-in process more efficient for their dealers.”
For more information on Selectbidder, check out its site here.
