Know your audience
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Direct internet marketing and independence allow Shoreham Vehicle Auctions to compete on a national stage with the big boys Words: Kevin Swallow / Images: Tom Lee It's been two years since Alex Wright acquired Shoreham Vehicle Auctions for an undisclosed sum after his departure from Manheim. What he saw in the southern car and CV auction house was potential and the chance to realise it. Key, says the MD, is the ability to market vehicles via the internet directly to interested parties — both trade and retail.
Following his purchase of the business, Wright invested in updating the infrastructure with a revamped website, new servers and back-up systems, as well as vehicle appraisal systems. There was a time when websites, data storage, software, back-up software and handheld appraisal systems cost the earth. In just five years, he explains, technology and the internet have become accessible to all and sundry, allowing the one-site independent auctioneers to compete with the national, multisite vendors.
He says: "Today it is more accessible and affordable, whereas eight years ago technology was considered only for the elite of the big companies that could provide the back-up.
"Now it is made available by smaller, entrepreneurial businesses that you can afford — it's one of the strengths of the independent auctions at the moment," he says.
He knows from experience how larger companies structure IT and how changes are implemented. "It can take years," he says, "whereas smaller companies need to be lighter on their feet, adapt and change when they have to."
Shoreham also employs a direct marketing campaign. "We put vehicles out to as wide an audience as possible and email links to them. We have seen interest in the vehicles increase [as a result]."
Web utilisation Smart utilisation of the web gives independents an edge, he says. "Our website is open, you don't have to register, or apply, and it's simple. If you can't find your truck on the website, what chance has a customer?"
Unique weekly hits to the website have risen from 200 into the thousands, explains Wright, and much of that is down to making the website accessible to mobile phones. He says: "There is free Wi-Fi in the hall, so they can make contact during a sale."
Promoting online interest is backed up by physical growth, with more vehicles coming through the halls at a time when the entire CV market has struggled to find quality and quantity. "In 2010 we probably sold around 200 vans a year. We are set to reach around 1,800 units this year. It's a key growth area — previously Shoreham didn't do fleet sales," he adds.
Now major fleet players such as Hitachi, Enterprise, Lombard, Balfour Beatty, Northgate and a host of county councils put their stock into Shoreham as it matches multisite players like BCA and Manheim for price and service level. "Otherwise they wouldn't do it," he adds.
In early September, Shoreham enjoyed its largest truck sale, with 25 going under the hammer, the majority provided by two district councils. Only three, or 12%, of the trucks were sold to bidders in the hall, explains Wright, the rest went to online buyers from Ireland, London, the Midlands and Yorkshire.
Shoreham's truck auctions might not be consistent in terms of numbers, but Wright says the business's market share is more than the 2% that trucks make up of the entire auction sector. He also questions whether auctions require 200 trucks for each sale in the future.
"Truck sales will be more targeted. We had vehicles from councils and the truck market as a bespoke sale, we will get more from that than we would if we padded out sales with more trucks," he says.
Getting extra trucks to auction is a costly process, especially if they fail to ignite interest. "Historically, you would need 100 trucks to get people to travel, now they look online and buy online without travelling — you have to provide online but people do both, kick the tyres and click on the tyres," he says.
For those who do like to "kick the tyres"Wright points out that Shoreham is the only truck and van auction south of London and has 62% of the nation's wealth within a two-hour drive.
While Shoreham is established as a set date on the calendar for cars and vans, Wright doesn't think the same will happen with trucks. "We simply won't get enough vehicles to do it as a regular fixture," he concedes, but believes there is scope for having quality, bespoke sales.
Delivering a high standard "It's being able to provide a facility that delivers to a high standard. Trucks come off the back of de-fleeted cars and vans; if customers are happy with the performance of cars and vans then they commit with their trucks.
"We have sold a fair number of refuse vehicles in the past few months and I have it on good authority that the prices match our competitors," he says.
Just about all the truck buyers are from the trade sector, looking to stock forecourts and meet orders from their retail customers. "As an independent, we don't target any particular market. Bigger auctioneers tend to believe that a specific market doesn't have the necessary return and they move on. For us, all options are open," he explains.
And the only way to counter supply issues for trucks is to build a reputation. "For all the emphasis on direct internet marketing, we must also concentrate on the traditional building of a business — we achieve good market value, we pay on time and we deliver the service," he adds. • When Alex Wright bought the business back in October 2010, the agreement didn't extend to the premises. He then took over the lease agreement with the landlord of the four-acre site. "The recession creates the most amazing opportunities — when the landlord went bust [earlier this year], it presented an opportunity to buy the site," he says.
He got a mortgage and is now owner of Shoreham Vehicle Auctions — lock, stock, and gavel. "I wouldn't have minded that opportunity coming a little later but it doesn't change the strategy. Ownership gives us stability. The next investment will be in the infrastructure: we started doing online first, now we can start investing in the site," he says.