Notes from the meeting room: Jon Mitchell, Autorola

Meeting chaired by: Jon Mitchell, Autorola UK group sales director

Why was the meeting called and who was in attendance?

A monthly business update between Autorola UK’s group sales director Jon Mitchell and group operations director Neil Frost with Autorola Group CEO Peter Groftehauge and Group CFO Peter Bisgaard who are both based in Denmark, via Teams.

Autorola’s Danish-based global board hosts monthly meetings with its 19 subsidiaries and over the past 15 months each country has been at a very different stage of being impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

What was top of the agenda?

Autorola UK’s plan of action to support dealers for when they re-open for business on 12 April. Despite lockdown in 2021 Autorola has seen the number of dealers buying used cars through its online portal grow each month. March 2021 looks as though it will be a stronger sales month than March 2020 to such an extent that Autorola is hosting four online sales a week for Arval as dealers look to buy used stock. This spells good news for another strong post lockdown surge in sales. Last year Autorola was hosting just two sales for Arval.

What was decided as a result of the meeting?

Preparing the Autorola team for high used car demand as dealers re-open. More dealers have registered with Autorola to buy used cars online during the pandemic which suggests they have switched onto the convenience of buying and selling used cars online. Autorola has also worked hard to sign up new vendors to help satisfy this expected demand with new online sales being hosted for Sixt and United Rental Group as well as Arval.

Any other business?

There was discussion about growing the UK team to support further business growth later in 2021. Basically, the meeting was very positive about the outlook for the UK market, particularly now that the vaccination programme has been so successful.

When is the next meeting, and what is it about?

Towards the end of April to review how the UK market is performing as it comes out of lockdown and how it is likely to shape up for the rest of 2021.

• Company: Autorola UK
• Head office location: Macclesfield
• Principal business: Online used car remarketing and used car insights via its INDICATA real time platform
• Number of employees: 50