Tesco is offering fleets and leasing businesses a new route for vehicle disposal in the form of TescoCars.com.
TescoCars was launched last month when the supermarket giant bought online used-car retailer Carsite.
Before being re-branded TescoCars, Carsite concentrated on selling mainly lower-value used car stock – generally more than three-years old – however, the Tesco name has brought more interest from the fleet sector according to TescoCars boss and founder of Carsite Douglas Rotberg.
Speaking to BusinessCar Rotberg said: “We’re not actively looking for more suppliers, but we are out every day talking to people. Lease companies have approached us and we’re happy to talk to them.”
However, Rotberg also insisted TescoCars represented a good opportunity for fleets in terms of vehicle disposals. Rotberg added that for fleets looking to dispose of vehicles, TescoCars could operate like an affinity scheme that sold cars back to employees at the end of contract.
One of TescoCars techniques for selling cars is to inspect, photograph and advertise vehicles before they become available. This would enable fleets to list cars before the end of contract, so minimising the time between de-fleeting and sale.
“Fleets can choose to give a sale date – so they can sell upstream. But there are lots of options: profit share, guaranteed price. In terms of time for money to reach the bank, we’re on a par with an auction channel and this can be a KPI if the fleet requests it. That’s one of the things open to discussion,” said Rotberg.
Exposure to a greater number of private buyers means that fleets should be able to sell their stock faster and at a higher price, compared with auctions, added the TescoCars boss.
While the firm is remaining tight-lipped about actual sales and targets, it said that in the first month of trading the website had nearly 500,000 visitors.
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