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Man with a plan
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Auctions are a popular route for retailers to stock forecourts with vans and pickups. We follow Jamie Gamble around Manheim Auctions at Haydock to a see a trader at work.
Words: Kevin Swallow / Images: Tom Cunningham Just a stone's throw from J23 on the M6 is the Manheim Auction site at Haydock. It's a seven-acre facility where space is at a premium and the team use every inch when a sale is on. CM followed trader Jamie Gamble (above) as he prepared to stock his forecourt with light commercial vehicles.
Overnight snow turns to slush as more than 90 registered buyers arrive in fits and starts thanks to the treacherous conditions and an accident on the M6. The organisers take the decision to delay the sale by 15 minutes because several buyers are stuck in the resultant queues.
It's the monthly Lombard sale, and Graham Coles, centre manager and auction controller, is hunched over his laptop with Manheim auctioneers John Harland and Andy Conde ahead of the sale.
Coles will be on the rostrum approving prices and, hopefully for retailers, turning provisional bids into confirmed sales.
On the other side of the rostrum is Gamble — our man with a plan. Twice a month he makes the trek from Nottingham to cast his eyes over the lots to furnish his dealership — Burton Joyce Car and Van Centre — with vans.
He can buy up to 30 vehicles in a given sale; depending on price, he adds.The vans are then transported back to Nottingham and placed on his forecourt. He prefers to travel to Haydock rather than attend sales closer to home.
Getting on with it
"Some people see the auction as a day out. a social thing, they like to get together and chat. The trouble is, you might take your eye off something and miss a vehicle. I come over here because it's work,1 keep myself to myself and get on with the job," he says.
After leaving school, Gamble started out as butcher, before taking to the road. "I was a lorry driver working nights when I started buying and selling cars during the day," he says.
Gamble went full-time 22 years ago, selling secondhand cars as G&M Motors in Nottingham. before opening a second site at Burton Joyce in 1996. Two years later, he added vans to the Burton Joyce portfolio.
''We shift about 500 vans a year," he says. and believes the company will put more emphasis on vans in the future. "The car market is struggling. In 2007 we sold more than 2,000 cars, this year it'll be closer to 1,200. Car prices have plummeted, vans is a steadier market."
The forecourt has a range of CVs with Gamble working to a stocking plan. Typically, the vans he retails will be between £3,000 and £10,000. "lhe average balance of stock is about £5,500. We have a set vehicle spread on the forecourt and buy to stock that format.
Little extras
-Coloured vans are becoming more popular: a silver Ford Connect with air conditioning will sell to someone who will drive it themselves and they'll pay that little extra. Someone who comes in and buys two or three for their drivers, won't pay an extra £500 for those things. Sales are mainly to small businesses and couriers," he says
Gamble has a rolling stock of 120 vans and each one goes out with a year's Mo't' and a six-month warranty. He has 25 staff covering the two sites and the work is in-house and for direct customers. There is a clear prerequisite for the type of vehicles Gamble wants to retail, and it's vehicles run by major business like Lombard that he likes. "We buy vehicles with a known history, one previous owner, where we know where they come from and have service history.
-We prefer these names; and you know what you are getting.
"I don't buy anything that has more than 60,000 miles on the clock and condition is more important than age: key is condition and mileage," he says.
Cosmetic work
Back at Burton Joyce. Gamble has a workshop where any cosmetic work on the paintwork or the engines are dealt with before they go to retail:The next thing is price.
"With the internet, prices have become more competitive.Ten years ago you didn't know the asking price for a van in Glasgow, it was done in the local papers and you had a 50-mile radius.
"Now you can check the prices on Auto Trader once a month and once a month we get the salesmen to do a check. If someone has the same vehicle £200 cheaper we'll adjust our prices," he says.
"This year." he says, "is the toughest year we have known. Small tippers have been hit the worse. The most reliable stuff is the [Vauxhall] Combo and [Ford] Connect vans. Month in-month out you'll sell a dozen. If it's nice and clean and straight you can't go wrong. Everything else is a bit of a lottery." •