Cartotrade, the new online trade-to-trade platform set-up by the original management team of Autotrade-mail – Kevin Watson, Laura Cannon and Gee Pugsley, has already seen stock worth over £1.5 million within its first fortnight of trading as it looks to bring more dealers on board.

Cannon said: “With a severe shortage of quality stock, it’s been really nice to see prime retail stock coming onto the platform, from a Fiat 500 convertible to a choice of Mini Countrymans.”

The online B2B trade arena is heating up with lots of new businesses bringing their offering to the table.

Watson added: “Before deciding to launch our own business, we carried out an in-depth analysis of the existing B2B players and came to the conclusion that we could be refreshingly different.

“It’s nice not to be working for a corporation or reporting to shareholders. I’m not knocking BCA’s Tradeouts, or Manheim’s Dealer Auction or even Auto Trader’s Autotrade-Mail, but we have the freedom and fluidity to do precisely what dealers want. We know it will take many months or possibly even years to become a true partner, but we’re determined to put in the hard work to get there”.