BuyaCar appoints Mark Hamilton as new national account director

BuyaCar has announced the appointment of Mark Hamilton as its new national account director.

The former Citroen, Peugeot, Audi, Nissan and Mercedes-Benz Vans fleet and commercial vehicles specialist's new role will see him managing partnerships with car dealers and expanding the company’s pool of stock.

The company said the second COVID-19 lockdown period in England had prompted more dealers to partner with the platform as they were forced to close their showrooms until December 2 - when showrooms can reopen under the three-tier system.

Hamilton, whose track record in national strategic and sales roles in retail, fleet and rental for Citroen, Peugeot, Nissan, Audi and Mercedes-Benz, gives him an understanding of dealer pressures and needs, and will also develop consumer insights back to participating dealers, said BuyaCar.

Andy Oldham, chief executive at BuyaCar, said: "With BuyaCar busier than it has ever been we are delighted to bring such an experienced national account director into the team to keep growing the supply side of our business.

"Mark speaks the dealer's language and has a deep understanding of their operations, needs and pressures, so he will be the ideal liaison point between our sales platform and the ever-growing dealer network that underpins our success.”

Mark Hamilton said: "BuyaCar's sales are growing fast and that means the supplying dealer network needs to keep up with demand, so part of my focus will be dealer recruitment.

"But we also hold a vast amount of consumer insight which we know will be invaluable in helping our dealer partners to better understand current trends and enable them to fine tune their stock purchasing. An important part of my role will therefore be to help develop a flow of information back to the dealers in our network.

"With online car sales really coming of age this year, and other entrants stepping into the space to compete with traditional dealers, we are determined to support our dealer partners with more incremental sales and better market intelligence as well as meet unprecedented consumer demand."

BuyaCar recently announced a new partnership with Alphera Financial Services to launch a new finance product that allows ocnsumers to offset carbon emissions from used hybrids and plug-in hybrids.

The company reported electric vehicle (EV) enquiries soared by 500% following the UK Government's announcement that it plans to ban the sale of cars and vans powered wholly by petrol or diesel engines in 2030,