Heavyweight industry team appointed to run best-in-class imaging and software business
- New business to be led by Robert Hazelwood, former MD of BCA UK, CEO Inchcape Retail and Head of Volkswagen and SKODA UK brands
- Class-leading end-to-end digital service offers outstanding photography and video, turntable technology, high-tech software and data management
Auto.Works, a new business set to revolutionise how new and used vehicles are presented online, has been launched by Citygate Holdings.
Auto.Works will provide an innovative end-to-end solution enabling OEMs, retailers and leasing companies to have an effective, high-quality and quick online digital marketing solution.
The new business combines existing tried, and tested UK-built turntable and imaging solutions from the established AutoLoadit business, with a new team of strategic, digital, data and retail specialists,
MD Robert Hazelwood will lead the business, with Chief Operating Officer Matt Benns (former director of automotive software business Keyloop, and head of business roles at Volkswagen UK, SEAT and Mazda).
Commenting about the new Auto.Works business Robert Hazelwood said, “Here in the UK, over 9m new and used cars were sold last year – selling these cars quickly and effectively is key to manufacturers and retailers alike. The Auto.Works marketing solution makes light work of the traditional time-consuming marketing process.”
Additionally, the business will be supported by the Citygate Holdings Board of Jonathan Smith (owner of Citygate and ex Divisional Director of H R Owen), Connor McCormack (CEO UTAC and past CEO Inchcape Retail), Sarah Sillars (ex-CEO and Executive Chairman IMI) and Graham Wheeler (ex-CEO Volkswagen Financial Services).
The business is established and currently working across 26 countries, helping some of Europe’s largest retailers, car supermarkets and leasing companies better scale their online retail presence. Over 100,000 high-definition images are captured every day using Auto.Works technology with more than 18,000 vehicles going online every month.
Matt Benns, Auto.Works COO, said, “We offer an end-to-end solution; turntable technology, colour-perfect lighting studios, hand-held imaging apps all providing the highest quality images and video. Adding these images to our data management portal we ensure easy, automated and time-saving collection, collation and multi-website transfer”.