A 200% increase in its fleet business in July compared to last year helped Motorauctions, Leeds, increase total sales during the month by 18%. During the same trading period, the auction site also achieved a 23% increase in its main dealers' business.

A year which got off to a flying start by seeing sales pushed up by 35% in the first quarter compared to 1998 has continued its upward trend for the second quarter by showing a 14% increase in sales for the three-month trading period up to the end of June.

Mike Partridge, operations director at Motorauctions, attributes the improvement in business to teamwork. He said: 'Part of the last quarter can be seen traditionally, as a quiet time for car retailing, but our sales figures continued to increase week-on-week. We completely restructured our fleet operation and strengthened the specialist fleet team with top quality appointments. That has obviously paid off.'