Wilsons Auctions Expands With Acquisition Of West Oxfordshire Motor Auction Ltd

Purchase of business brings branch total to ten across UK and Ireland

WILSONS Auctions, the UK and Ireland’s largest independent auction company, has announced that it is expanding its business with the purchase of West Oxfordshire Motor Auction Ltd, in Witney, England.

The acquisition of the family-run business brings the total number of sites for Wilsons Auctions to nineteen including ten branches and nine logistic and storage locations across the UK and Ireland and will strengthen its offering into the south east region of England.

The Oxfordshire site has recently celebrated 34 years in business. The acquisition will see the 27-strong workforce transition to Wilsons Auctions along with its weekly car auctions that currently see 30,000 vehicles go under the hammer annually. Following the acquisition Wilsons Auctions has plans to both create employment in the local area and to extensively refurbish the premises which will be rebranded Wilsons Auctions, Oxford.

Formed in 1936, Wilsons Auctions is a family-owned business and the acquisition of West Oxfordshire Motor Auction Ltd will help to expand Wilsons Auctions presence across England along with its Newcastle branch in the north, Telford branch in the Midlands and Maidstone in the south. Wilsons Auctions also has branches in Belfast and Portadown in Northern Ireland, Glasgow in Scotland,Queensferry and Newport in Wales and Dublin in Republic of Ireland.

Wilsons Auctions Group Operations Director, Peter Johnston said, “We do not think of acquisitions as vanity projects or a competition as to who has more ‘dots on the map’. We move carefully and would only consider an acquisition if an organisation fitted with our family business ethos, as we have shown numerous times in the past.

West Oxfordshire Motor Auction Ltd is exactly that sort of fit, an excellent family run business carefully nurtured over many years by its current owners, and with excellent staff committed to their careers. Importantly the team at West Oxfordshire Motor Auction Ltd share our values of remaining true to the tradition of auctioneering, working solely for vendors and purchasers, and have not crossed a line to become buyers and resellers of the stock they are entrusted to sell, as have many of our auction peer group.

Along with our nine online vehicle auction preparation and disposal centres and nine existing auction centres this brings our national footprint to nineteen facilities giving us an excellent national coverage, and a combined acreage of approximately 200 acres.

We welcome West Oxfordshire Motor Auction Ltd to the family and look forward to improving the site and introducing our valued vendors and purchasers to the passion of the management and staff.”

Wilsons Auctions currently holds over 3,000 auctions annually, auctioning everything from cars and vans, plant and machinery & property to general goods, as well as the more luxurious items including planes, yachts, gold bars, supercars, designer goods and prestigious watches.

The company manages the asset realisation process for a number of government agencies including over 40 law enforcement agencies across the UK and Ireland.  Wilsons Auctions is proud to be responsible for returning in excess of £130 million back into the public purse through the role it plays in realising important assets.

For further information go to www.wilsonsauctions.com, follow on Facebook @wilsonsauctionsltd or go to @wilsonsauctions on Twitter and Instagram.