A new remarketing deal agreed with BCA last year is to result in the closure of Lex Autolease's two Midlands-based used car supermarkets.
The deal, revealed in Fleet News last November, means that remarketing and auction firm BCA is set to handle around 80,000 defleet and resales a year for the UK's biggest leasing firm.
But the new partnership has come at the expense of Lex's two 'Car Select' used car supermarket operations in the West Midlands.
The Coventry site was opened as a vehicle processing and sales centre by Lex in 2014. The leasing company uses the centre to remarket around 45,000 vehicles a year and the site also has space for 500 used cars to retail to the general public through its Car Select brand. It employs 150 people.
At the time of the launch of Lex Autolease’s Coventry remarketing business, managing director Tim Porter (pictured at the site) said it was a key part of the company’s growth strategy and represented a “significant investment for the business”.
A Lex Autolease spokesperson said: “We have taken the decision to close our retail sites in Coventry and Oldbury, and to outsource the remaining elements of our vehicle remarketing operation within Lex Autolease to BCA. This follows extensive work to consider future options for our vehicle remarketing activities, and supports our strategic aim to focus on growing our vehicle leasing business.”
Both sites are to close on May 20.
A BCA spokesperson added: “Lex Autolease have awarded BCA the contract for the outsourcing of their remarketing, inspections and defleet services for 5 years. Consultation is currently underway with a view to a number of Lex Autolease employees transferring to BCA.”
Clive Blackaby - 08/04/2016 00:16
I've lost count of the number of times in the last 20 years that Lex has launched new "Vehicle Re-marketing" operations with much fanfare, only to pull out a couple of years later and leave it to the experts. "Those who do not learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them"