BCA’s used-car website drives profits up 33%

Motorists’ growing preference for selling their cars on websites such as webuyanycar.com rather than their local showroom is helping fire BCA Marketplace to record profits.

The company formerly known as British Car Auctions is the UK’s largest operator of physical and digital auctions of used cars. It was floated two years ago and has a market value of £1.7 billion. It deals mainly with the manufacturers’ finance companies or major banking groups which pass on the vehicles coming out of personal contract purchase deals. These are typically for three years and are used by more than four in five British motorists to buy new cars.

Of the 1 million used cars BCA deals with every year — about 13 per cent of the 7.5 million coming…