Lex Autolease, the UK’s largest car and van leasing company is set to shut its two remarketing sites in the West Midlands.
The 2015 BC50 frontrunner will scrap its bases in Coventry and Oldbury, putting 98 jobs at risk, while another 29 employees are transferring to BCA.
“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,” a spokeswoman told BusinessCar. “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.”
This move is a change in approach from 15 months ago, when Lex suggested it could grow its remarketing business.
“The question is, if these two work then why not have 22?” Tim Porter, Lex Autolease’s managing director told BusinessCar last January. “It’s because our main business is leasing cars and fleet management for customers, but it’s very helpful to have experience in the retail used vehicle marketplace.”
Investment in technology helped improve the firm’s defleet time, with Porter at the time claiming a lot of vehicles are sold before they reach the showroom. “The ability to sell a used vehicle quickly is very important to profitability,” he said in 2015. “We have 75,000-80,000 vehicles come back every year, so it’s very significant if we can take a day off stock holding – over 7000 vehicles per month means it is a significant difference to the cash.”
