Aston Barclay appoints new Wakefield manager
Aston Barclay has appointed Karl Ward, previously remarketing manager at Ogilvie Fleet, as manager of its state-of-the-art Wakefield ‘Northern Powerhouse.’
Karl has been in the vehicle auction and remarketing industry since 2006, most recently as remarketing manager at Ogilvie Fleet Ltd where he had control of all remarketing divisions. In this role he worked closely with Aston Barclay, selling over 2,500 units across four of its five sites.
Prior to his role with Ogilvie, Karl was head of operations and sales including senior auctioneer at British Car Auctions’ (BCA) Leeds site, previously SMA and, prior to that, Premier Motor Auctions when the Leeds site was the largest independent auction centre in the UK.
Karl has worked across a variety of business roles including operations, sales and centre management and, coupled with his experience as a vendor, has built up a solid understanding of the processes and service requirements of all stakeholders.
As the centre manager of the group’s newest and most technologically advanced centre, Karl will build on the successes achieved since Wakefield opened in January 2019 and continue to deliver Aston Barclay’s stated goal of ‘connecting customers to cars’. Wakefield currently offers twice weekly dealer sales and a weekly fleet sale offering in excess of 1,000 vehicles per week for leading national and regional dealer groups, as well as top fleets and finance houses.
Neil Hodson, CEO, Aston Barclay Group, said, ‘It is fantastic to welcome someone with Karl’s experience, insight and enthusiasm onboard to head up our Wakefield centre. We have worked closely with Karl for a number of years and very much look forward to supporting him in continuing to build on the centre’s successes to date.’
Karl commented, ‘It is a very exciting time to be joining Aston Barclay as it pursues its strategy of ‘connecting customers to cars and driving the future of remarketing’. To have the opportunity to head-up the most advanced auction facility in Europe, if not the world, is fantastic. The Wakefield centre is local to me and therefore I understand the important role it plays in the local automotive community. I really look forward to supporting the business with its future development and growth strategies.’
