Manheim has raised £14,050 for charity from a fortnight of sale events, which celebrated the Ford Transit’s 50th birthday, at the company’s sites across the country.

From August 3-14, each of its commercial vehicle auction centres pledged £10 for every Transit sold, with £5 donated to Macmillan Cancer Support, a charity long-supported by Ford UK, and £5 going to the Manheim Foundation.

In the two weeks, Manheim sold 445 Ford Transits, worth a total of just over £2 million. On average, the selling price for each van was £4,520 and they had 83,000 on the clock, accumulated over 69 months. Of the total, 103 (23%) were sold online via Manheim’s award-winning online bidding platform, Simulcast.

There were 276 different Transit buyers in-lane and online at Manheim’s auctions throughout the fortnight, with Auto Capital Ltd of West London buying 15 units worth a total of £70,000 over the period.

The star lot was auctioned off at Manheim’s Haydock site on Tuesday August 11, having been donated by Hitachi Capital.

The six-year old Transit 330 2.2 TDCI 115PS MWB Medium Roof Panel Van sold for £6,100 – with 100% of the hammer price going to the two charitable causes.

Peter Lee, chairman of The Ford Transit Club, joined Manheim at its Colchester site and he took to the rostrum to auction two copies of his Transit 50th birthday book. More than £1,000 was raised from this and other non-auction fundraising activities, including The Great Manheim Bake Off cake sale and a generous donation from PJM Group.

James Davis, Manheim’s director of commercial vehicles, and Matthew Davock, Manheim’s head of LCV, hit the road in two specially branded Transits on Manheim’s ‘Backbone of Britain’ Tour to support the fortnight of auction events.

“We set ourselves a fundraising target of £10,000, so we are absolutely thrilled to have beaten it by such a big margin – and have enormous fun in the process,” said Davis. “The generosity of our employees, suppliers and customers was simply fantastic, and we could not have achieved this result without them. Most importantly, we know that the money raised will be greatly appreciated by the charities.”