Thank you and best wishes for 2021
I wanted to start by thanking you for your continued partnership during what has been an unprecedented year for us all. I have been impressed and humbled by the resilience you have shown and the strength of the industry response. From the lows of lockdown and forecourts being closed, through to record consumer demand, growth in leads and sales, and year-on-year pricing up over 8%1, our industry has demonstrated its ability to come back stronger.
Supporting your business
I hope that our decision to remove advertising charges in December and to extend November payment terms by a month has helped you to have the confidence to start 2021 in a strong position, despite the ongoing uncertainty that Brexit brings and the continued lockdowns and restrictions we are facing.
Our support continues into December with the launch of our biggest marketing campaign ever from Boxing Day. We have committed to the campaign being always on throughout 2021, to ensure buyers know where to find their next vehicle throughout the year. Last year we saw a spike in demand in the region of 40%2 over the Christmas period and anticipate the same this year, which should set the trajectory for positive January trading.
Supporting Ben, to support you
We also announced recently our major new partnership with automotive industry charity, Ben. We have donated much-needed funds and committed to supporting the charity over the coming years through ongoing financial support as well as through our people providing their skills and technical knowledge. We hope to be able to make a real difference to the work that Ben do. As you hopefully already know, Ben is a charity dedicated to supporting people from the automotive industry, providing support for life for them and their family dependents. 2020 has impacted many charities fundraising and Ben is no exception. Demand for the charity’s services has increased nearly three-fold as people struggle to cope with the effects that COVID-19 have had on their lives, be that financial or emotional. The charity is struggling to cope with this unprecedented level of demand, and we hope our support will help to alleviate some of this pressure.
Matt Wigginton, Fundraising Director at Ben, said: “We rely on donations to ensure no one in automotive faces life’s toughest challenges alone, and Auto Trader’s donation will mean we can make a positive difference to the lives of even more people in our industry.”
A short video of our year together
I’m incredibly proud of the teams at Auto Trader who have worked tirelessly through lockdown to help you come back stronger. Many of you have told me this was invaluable to you and it is an approach we want to continue to build upon in 2021.
There was so much I wanted to say to you, the team suggested we make a short video about our journey together this year. As we start to wind down, recharge our batteries and get ready to come back stronger next year, let’s take a moment to pause and acknowledge what we’ve achieved together this year.
As always, I welcome your feedback. I feel our partnership has strengthened this year and I am looking forward to working with you in 2021 and am confident that we can navigate whatever the next year brings together.
I hope that you manage to rest over the festive period ready for the New Year!
Best wishes,
Nathan
Data Sources
1: Auto Trader Retail Price Index 2020 vs 2019 (like for like pricing)
2: Auto Trader internal analysis of Google Analytics data, average number of unique advert views daily, 25th December 2019 – 27th December 2019 (inclusive).