8:48 am, December 8, 2021
City Auction Group has made two senior appointments with Graham Howes coming in as head of LCV and Paul Kavanagh joining the rostrum as specialist event auctioneer.
Howes was the commercial director of CD Auction Group and previously had been at Copart UK and SMA Remarketing, while Kavanagh brings with him more than 40 years of experience at BCA, which he joined in 1979, and will be working in unison with event auctioneer Jon Lee.
Michael Tomalin, chief executive of City Auction Group, said: ‘I am delighted to be welcoming remarketing heavyweights Graham and Paul to the UK’s largest indoor auction arena at our Peterborough venue.
‘This is a big win for our new facility, in which we have invested heavily over the last few months. Our strengthened senior team will be pivotal in driving our growth strategy over the next two to three years.’
He added: ‘In recent months, we have offered more vehicles for our growing corporate fleet and finance, dealer group and LCV vendor partners than previous trading months, in a marketplace which is challenged for a consistent supply of used vehicles.
‘We have achieved this by opening our auction lanes physically, supported by live online auctions, to ensure vehicles achieve a higher financial return than all other remarketing avenues.
‘Our philosophy is working well, and the introduction of new sale events specifically for dealer group part-exchange vehicles and LCVs will commence very soon, to support our established fleet and finance open-lane auction events.
‘We now have a highly experienced team at Peterborough, which is led by our commercial director, Maria Avery, supplying the complete portfolio of logistics, defleet and remarketing solutions.’
Howes said: ‘In my last role, I was very focused on the development of our light commercial vehicle sales, and this success has developed an understanding that I will endeavour to apply to our light commercial vehicle sales at City Auction Group.
‘LCV sales are an important part of our service offering and we aim to be selling a greater number and mix of vehicles.
‘My colleagues and I are passionate about delivering exceptional service to our stakeholders – both vendors and buyers – and we will work to deliver a market-leading LCV sales operation at City Auction Group.’
Pictured from left are Paul Kavanagh, Maria Avery and Graham Howes
