Cox Automotive USA has purchased the entire shareholding of its joint venture partner DealerMotive in the Cox Automotive Australia Group.
The Cox Automotive Australia group joint venture was formed in 2016 between Cox Automotive USA and DealerMotive, an Australian consortium of dealer investors, which at the time represented more than one-third of the country’s new vehicle sales volume.
The creation of the joint venture group saw CarsGuide join existing Cox Automotive brands. Since then the joint venture has launched brands such as Autotrader, Kelley Blue Book, Digipurple and Dealer-Auction into the Australian market.
More recently, the joint venture signed an agreement to purchase DealerCell and earlier this year it sold off the Media Solutions group, comprised of the CarsGuide and Autotrader brands, to Gumtree.
The sale of the media brands provided a catalyst for concluding the joint venture.
“From the outset of the joint venture, one of the primary objectives of our dealer investors was to create stronger competition for the provision of dealer services, in order to give dealers more choice in the marketplace and better value for their money,” DealerMotive chairperson Martin Ward says.
“With the launch of several new brands and especially Autotrader, our investors can be proud of the role they played in helping reshape the competitive landscape for automotive services for franchised dealers. With the sale of CarsGuide and Autotrader along with it, we felt it was the right time to bring the joint venture to an end.
“On behalf of DealerMotive, I’d like to thank Cox Automotive both here in Australia and the US, for their support and for fostering a genuine partnership with our dealer investors. Cox Automotive remains committed as ever to supporting dealers in Australia and we look forward to maintaining a close and mutually beneficial partnership,” Ward says.
“We will always be grateful for the support, experience and expertise that our partners from DealerMotive injected into our joint venture business. We have benefited from their strategic customer insights and market knowledge, helping to grow Cox Automotive Australia over the past few years and positioning the company for future success,” he says.
“We look forward to maintaining a close working relationship with the dealer investors who in many cases are also valued customers. Our aim is to continue to be a strong partner of the automotive industry, offering a suite of connected automotive products and services which ensure a competitive marketplace and importantly, assist dealers in running their businesses more profitably and efficiently,” Cox Automotive Australia chief executive officer Rob Whiten says.
The company stated earlier this year that with the sale of the Autotrader and CarsGuide brands, its focus has been on executing its broader strategy of building upon strengths in the wholesale arena and supporting dealers, OEMs, insurers, financiers, fleet/lease and rental companies with a connected retail proposition.
“In the current COVID-19 environment, Cox Automotive is strengthening our focus on digitising the wholesale and retail automotive experience, to provide our customers the tools they need to keep their businesses moving forward in rapidly changing markets,” Whiten says.
This further investment by Cox Automotive USA is a clear sign of its confidence in our strategic direction and in the Australian and New Zealand markets,” he says.
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