Shifting consumer buying patterns lifted online car retailer WeBuyCars in the year ending September, as the company recorded double-digit monthly sales growth in the period.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, there has been a massive shift to online shopping, and Transactional Capital, which has a controlling stake in WeBuyCars, says the trend has brought good fortunes to the online car retailer.
Transactional Capital says WeBuyCars is excelling in a competitive market, as volumes of vehicles traded in the second half of 2021 the financial year exceeded expectations.
For the year, Transaction Capital says, as a group, it performed largely in line with expectations, buoyed by high-growth earnings from its acquisition of WeBuyCars, and growth of other divisions, SA Taxi and Transaction Capital Risk Services.
The JSE-listed investment company holds 74.9% shareholding in the online car retailer, and the remaining 25.1% of the shares are held by the family trusts of the founding shareholders, Faan and Dirk van der Walt.
WeBuyCars is a dealer in used vehicles in SA. It purchases used vehicles mainly from private sellers and then on-sells them to used car dealers and private consumers.
Today, Transactional Capital notified the markets in a pre-close statement for the year ending 30 September that WeBuyCars continues to invest in its e-commerce platform, which is yielding positive results in the current COVID-19 environment.
“E-commerce sales now account for approximately 30% of total monthly sales, with the majority being concluded through its business-to-business platform, creating efficiencies in the dealer sales channel. Business-to-consumer e-commerce capabilities were introduced earlier in the year and continue to show an increasing uptake.”
Further, Transactional Capital says, the business is expanding its physical footprint, with two additional vehicle supermarkets secured in the second half of the financial year.
“The Germiston branch, which opened on 1 June 2021, created additional capacity of 850 parking bays, bringing the total national capacity to above 5 800 bays. Agreements to purchase The TicketPro Dome in Johannesburg have been concluded. This supermarket will initially add 1 100 parking bays to the footprint and has a total capacity of 1 400 bays.”
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