The former management team of online trade-to-trade service Autotrade-mail are set to launch a new online car trading platform called www.cartotrade.com, at the end of May.

Kevin Watson, Laura Cannon and Gee Pugsley managed Autotrade-mail in Chichester, West Sussex until owners Auto Trader made the decision to consolidate and move its sales and service operations to offices in Manchester.

Collectively, the three have more than 25 years’ experience in online remarketing and 30 years’ working with dealers.
 
Watson, one of the founders of Cartotrade.com, said: “The decision to re-group and develop our own proposition was a very exciting one. The combination of our experience and the encouragement from our friends within the industry asking us to ‘do it again’, only re-enforced that it’s the right thing to do.”

Cartotrade.com’s aim is to create a "friendly, independent", service that helps dealers buy and sell trade stock quickly and easily whilst maximising trade profit.

Cartotrade.com will run an ‘invite only policy’ with a strict vetting process which will generate a ‘club feel’ whilst maintaining the integrity of the website and security for its members.

Cannon said: “Being independent allows us to have purely dealer focused objectives, which means it won’t be about having the most dealers to satisfy revenue targets, it’s the quality of the dealers that’s important.

"Likewise, we won’t artificially enhance our stock volumes by using feeds from other remarketing sources. A car on the cartotrade.com website will be available to purchase, and the seller will know about it when a buyer contacts them.”

Cartotrade.com will also issue a manifesto, issuing pledges to its future members which includes that cartotrade.com will never be sold.
 
Pugsley said: “Whilst our website will provide a back to basics approach, we are very excited to be able to introduce some unique new initiatives.

"We have always been innovators in this field, so it will be wonderful to come to market with some completely new features, all there for the dealer’s benefit.

"Our manifesto will cement our commitment to serving the industry with the dealers’ interests at heart – all will be revealed very soon.”

The cartotrade.com team will be calling hundreds of dealers over the next couple of months, but those interested can pre-register their interest to have a free trial at www.cartotrade.com.