Having a team that allows you to focus on growing the next sector within your group is a strange place to be in. You don’t have the excuse of being ‘busy’ anymore and instead, you must put your time, effort and money where your mouth is and show results.
We have been a force in the long-term automotive rental market for a couple of years now but at the end of the term the vehicle, if not owned by Apertus Group, goes back to the supplier and they sell that vehicle on. This is a trick we have been missing out on, what if we could purchase those vehicles at the end of the term and sell them on? Or, even better, what if we could finance those vehicles at the start and add the Apertus touch on the whole process?
So, we did…
A while back, I wanted to enter the car sales market in the safest way possible… low risk. Now those that know me know I am normally an all-or-nothing kind of guy, shoot from the hip sort of thing, but as we grow, it seems to mean more. There’s more on the line. So, I had to research what could we buy and sell that would do just that – actually sell.
I tell you what will sell, Mini Cooper Ss and Range Rover Evoques sell. We took one of each and they had visits and offers with the first 24 hours, but not from who I thought. These were trade offers, purchasing for stock. Easy this game.
Next on the ‘forecourt’ was a Jaguar F-Pace in Santorini Black. Ohhhh, it was nice!
We posted the advert and sat back, I made sure I had some diary time for all of the interest, practised my handshake and Googled Swiss Tony videos as surely he was my only equal… It absolutely bombed! Nothing, not a single enquiry, £50,000 sitting in a car we had taken a punt on because I liked it!
Lesson number one was hard, what I want to drive has zero impact on what should be purchased. It’s about what is in demand. We ended up breaking even on the vehicle but lost overall with time and soft prep work. I was devastated. We took a break from selling vehicles and went back to the relative safety of rentals.
The bug doesn’t leave you, though, if it does it wasn’t meant to be.
When we had an enquiry from a customer that we have rented literally hundreds of vehicles to over the past four years to see if we could source Land Rover Defenders, it was the nudge I needed to get the cogs moving again.
Now, we have always sold relationships at Apertus Group. We have built these through years of negotiating and working alongside some of the best local and national companies in all our sectors. So, back to my roots… I picked up the phone. You get a level of understanding and value from speaking to someone that you just don’t get by blanket emailing suppliers. Within the day I had found a pair of Full Extended Black Pack Land Rover Defender X-Dynamic D300 HSEs, in budget and with the right mileage and spec, from one of our direct suppliers.
Now, having a number of Defenders on fleet we know what we want, but more importantly we can advise you on models, prices and spec that actually work, rather than being in a position to ‘need to shift’ stock as it sits.
In just over a week we had sourced the vehicles, they had been inspected, the customer had arranged funding, and they are just waiting for V5s whilst the directors drive around today in the sun with the roof open in their new vehicles.
So, what’s next for my masterplan on vehicles, now that we have shown ability to source vehicles and are working on a couple of enquiries? We long term rent a portfolio of vehicles that would make a centipede lose count and we can sell from stock if we come across a belter of a deal, all that’s left is my personal project – my baby.
Because from day dot, I have always wanted to buy, restore and sell semi-classic cars, ones that I wanted growing up.
So, for all you Mark 1 Golf GTI, Peugeot 205 GTI, Renault 5 GT Turbo and so on fans, please keep watching…
Get in touch with the team at The Apertus Group to find out more. Call 01604 212828 or email info@apertusgroup.co.uk.
Visit The Apertus Group website: www.apertusgroup.co.uk
