On Tuesday 4^th May, we announced the acquisition of pkwNOW, one of the leading Dealer-to-Dealer (D2D) online auction platforms in Germany.

Headquartered in Lüdenscheid, pkwNOW is recognised for its online remarketing expertise in Germany, with a wealth of experience in dealer and export vehicles, lease returns and fleet vehicles.

A well-known and established dealer tool in Germany, pkwNOW has successfully grown its market share to become one of the leading online trade auction platforms.

The acquisition of pkwNOW will help us scale our remarketing capability in Germany as well as increasing the volume of cars sold every year. It will sit alongside our recently-launched artificial intelligence capability in our Manheim Express application – making the purchasing experience seamless, digitised and convenient for dealers.

“pwkNOW is a business in Germany that we have admired for some time, with clear synergies between their services and those within our Manheim Express digital auction portfolio. In acquiring additional German market expertise from pkwNOW, we plan to combine this with our innovative digital-first roadmap to truly transform the vehicle auctions business throughout Germany and Continental Europe.”

“We have ambitious growth plans for Cox Automotive to become a major player in markets such as France, Spain and Italy. We hope to see Manheim Express trading over 100,000 cars by 2023, with similar growth aspirations for the other brands in our portfolio. The acquisition of pkwNOW and the footprint into Germany that this now gives us is a key step towards realising our growth ambitions.”

This year, Manheim in the UK celebrates its 100^th birthday. Throughout the year, we’ll be celebrating this landmark birthday by telling our story of a century of innovation, remembering the moments that helped define our sector and talking to those who were there.

We’ll explore the Manheim of today – and reflect on why, as part of Cox Automotive, we continue to evolve on our auction hall roots.

Plus, we’ll look ahead to the future and consider what’s in store as we enter our second century.

Today, we invite you to take a trip with us down memory lane, from our humble beginnings in the 1920s to today being part of Cox Automotive, the world’s largest automotive services organisation.

What’s a birthday without a little cash? For our ‘Manheim at 100’ celebrations, Sam Watkins, Commercial Director of Manheim Vehicle Services, is leading a group of brave team members to take on the ‘South Coast Ultimate Challenge’.

The team’s aim is to walk 100km whilst increasing awareness and raising as many donations as they can for the incredible Make-A-Wish Foundation who grant wishes to critically-ill children across the UK.

The event takes place in September this year. 

Other team members across Cox Automotive Europe are also joining the birthday party, by setting themselves a personal ‘100 for 100 Challenge’! The challenges range from doing 100 push-ups every day for a month or completed a 100-minute sponsored silence.

Team members have until 7^th August to complete their challenge and they’re aiming towards a fundraising target of £100 or €100 for Make-A-Wish Foundation!

Check out the next edition of Inter.Com where we will be sharing the photos, videos and stories from our ‘100 for 100 Challenge’!