G3 Vehicle Auctions sold a record 1,000 vehicles at its new £12m centre during its first week – and just as England’s new lockdown began.
The state-of-the-art development in Yorkshire was opened on January 4 – hours ahead of Boris Johnson announcing England’s third lockdown and with the first sale due to take place the next day.
More than 2,300 applications to attend the opening sales were received, and a limited guest list was issued for the first event.
However, the new restrictions meant it had to switch to a live online stream.
That didn’t hamper bidders’ enthusiasm, though, with the following two digital events that week combining to reach the grand total of 1,000 vehicle sales.
The 14-acre site in the A1, M1, M62 triangle is the UK’s biggest purpose-built independent auction and refurbishment development for more than 20 years, says G3, and is underpinned by a network of 35 drop-off hubs.
The remarketing centre boasts stadium-standard LED screens linked to a newly launched multi-lane bidding platform, plus the capacity to sell more than 50,000 vehicles a year.
Major new vendors added to the roster for the launch week included Zenith, Hitachi Capital, Liquid Fleet, Tesla and Blue Motor Finance.
Amanda Holtby, co-owner and director, said: ‘It was so close, yet so far!
‘Whilst we could not wait to open and welcome a limited number of visitors to a physical launch sale to take a glimpse of what we have been working on throughout 2020, we had to react quickly to turn our attentions to online-only sales once again.
‘We are proud the launch sales were still a huge success in these challenging times for everyone.
‘Our loyal buyers and a whole host of new trade accounts joined us for the live streams to see the great range of vendors we have on offer at our new centre.’
She added: ‘In a time when many of our auction rivals are vocal in their futures lying solely with online-only sales, we have bucked the trend and invested heavily in a physical auction centre that will rival anything else on offer in the UK.
‘We’ve built a reputation for our engaging and popular auction events, so when it’s safe to do so we will be inviting buyers new and old to visit the site to experience our huge undercover viewing hall and the exciting new rostrum lanes for themselves.’
G3 is currently holding three online-only auctions a week, with an appointment-led click-and-collect service that offers more than 700 vehicles from many of the UK’s largest fleet, rental and finance vendors.
G3 Remarketing reveals plans to shake up auctions market with new state-of-the-art £12m facility
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