City Auction Group has reinforced plans for growth and LCV sales expansion with two new senior appointments.

City Auction Group commercial director Maria Avery with Paul Kavanagh (left) and Graham Howes

The new recruits include Graham Howes, who will lead the LCV charge, and Paul Kavanagh, who joins the rostrum to work in unison with Jon Lee, the group’s established event auctioneer.

As the new head of LCV, Graham Howes will build on his previous work to further develop the group’s light commercial vehicle sales division.

The former commercial director of CD Auction Group, he has over a decade of experience in vehicle remarketing, covering both physical and digital environments. His background includes roles at SMA, Copart and a number of OEMs.

He explained: “LCV sales is an important part of our service offering and we aim to be selling a greater number and mix of vehicles going forward.

“My colleagues and I are passionate about delivering exceptional service to our stakeholders – both vendors and buyers and we will work to deliver a market-leading LCV sales operation at City Auction Group.”

In addition, Paul Kavanagh joins from BCA, bringing more than 40 years’ experience in the vehicle remarketing sector.

In his new role, he will work closely with manufacturers, major leasing companies and financial institutions to develop auction lane and digital sale opportunities.

Michael Tomalin, CEO of City Auction Group, said the strengthened senior team would be pivotal in driving the firm’s growth strategy over the next two to three years.

“In recent months, we have offered more vehicles for our growing corporate fleet and finance, dealer group and LCV vendor partners than previous trading months, in a marketplace which is challenged for a consistent supply of used vehicles. We have achieved this by opening our auction lanes physically, supported by live online auctions, to ensure vehicles achieve a higher financial return than all other remarketing avenues.

“Our philosophy is working well and the introduction of new sale events specifically for dealer group part exchange vehicles and LCV will commence very soon, to support our established fleet and finance open lane auction events.

“We now have a highly experienced team at Peterborough, which is led by our commercial director, Maria Avery, supplying the complete portfolio of logistics, defleet and remarketing solutions.”