Weekly vans update with Matthew Davock - 24th August 2015
What can I say… the last 2 weeks have flown by and I am pleased to report the LCV market has shown strong signs of improvement in demand performance and conversion rates.
During this fortnight we celebrated the Transit’s 50th Birthday in style with themed events at each and every one of our auction centres. Many of you were able to attend in person and online to participate, which I thank you for. Vendors and buyers have commented to me on how much fun they had and that we were unique marking them to this degree. Just goes to show why we are the UK’s Number One. Over the 2 weeks we sold 445 Transits worth a staggering £2.01m and most importantly we raised £14,000 for Macmillan and the Manheim Foundation. Check out this link to our JD’s blog summary here >
If I look year on year we are currently offering 20% more volume, but this is still around 10% behind Q1 and Q2 2015 run rates. During these periods we offered 35% more volume than prior. Over the last 3 weeks the volumes of duplicate stock has decreased in our auction lanes and on the back of this, auction prices have strengthened and conversion rates have also improved. Again considering the additional volumes it goes to prove how healthy the LCV market is in August.
So why is this? Some buyers I have spoken too are scratching their heads on why retail activity has increased… where some report slow trickles of enquiries, others are running with record stock levels and reporting fantastic July and August sales! Many of these buyers are in control of the buying process so, upon returning from holiday, their first task has been to re-stock and chase down retail customers’ requests.
In the last 2 weeks we have seen physical attendances return to healthy numbers and the online attendance has remained in line with July. In terms of physical and online buyer registrations we are currently running 20% higher year on year.
So, the question I get asked constantly (crystal ball time) how long will this demand last? Well, it will be determined by supply. We still need to mindful on pricing damaged stock appropriately. I predict de-fleet volumes will increase late September/early October and if we learn by the mistakes of Q1 and Q2 around pricing duplication stock and heavily damaged stock correctly then the buyers will be out to buy at the correct prices.
What’s Hot this week
What Models have struggled against the guide this week
Clean condition and mileage remains key but the ‘Hot’ section has been on the buyers shopping lists.
Manheim’s online performance has played a major part of what I feel has been the strongest 2 weeks in a long long time. We have seen records smashed, recording our highest amount of online sold units in one sale, 119 units. A recent sale at Gloucester saw just over 40% of the entry sell to our online buyers. It is now the norm to see between 75 and 90 active online buyers depending on stock entry.
To conclude, supply and demand is definitely playing a major part in recent performances. Looking back I believe we will see a record Q3 and I have certainly not witnessed an exit to seasonality SO early – typically we would expect this bounce back in early to mid-September.
James and I were interviewed by Vans A2Z, in the below video we cover the Transit 50th fundraiser and I give a view on the market over the past 6 months.
Thank you again for your much valued business and continued support. Tune in every Monday to see how we’ve performed. Until then, keep ‘Sharing the CV Love’.
Thanks Matthew
