22/10/08 Bluecycle's New MD Predicts Year of Growth in Salvage Business |
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The future of the car salvage industry is being driven by the rising cost of vehicle repair through parts and labour, says Guy Spence, new managing director at Bluecycle. Spence, 35, takes the helm at one of the UK's leading online marketplaces for car salvage, after starting work with the company in 2000 - its inaugural year - as a temporary member of staff. He says: "Vehicles are becoming more complex and expensive to repair and it's an opportunity for the salvage market to offer "green" and recycled parts to help companies either disposing of vehicles or repairing them to get the most value in return. "And with the online car salvage auction market now being international, salvage buyers have become a different animal: they can sit at home, in front of a computer, anywhere in the world and trade." Spence predicts a year of growth for Bluecycle in 2009 and is confident about winning new contracts based on developing innovative and bespoke ways of working with insurers and, increasingly, fleet companies. "I was in at the start of Bluecycle, when nobody believed it was going to be possible to sell salvaged cars over the Internet, to get car salvage dealers to pay by credit card without seeing the vehicle in the flesh and without physically kicking the tyres at point of purchase. But the industry has moved on and it's essential that car salvage companies operate in a wholly transparent and open way, which hasn't always been the business model in the salvage industry. Insurers want to know how much the salvage is worth, and we feel it's only right that we give them this transparency." Spence has spent the past four years as Bluecycle's head of Salvage Operations. He adds: "At Bluecycle we understand that car salvage management is an integral part of the motor claims supply chain which needs to be combined with a highly flexible channel for disposal, such as online auctions." |
