We Buy Any Car

Webuyanycar.com is a car buying service with over 350 branches across the UK. The UK corporate office is headquartered in Farnham, Surrey, England[3] and the company has over 700 employees.[4]

Webuyanycar.com
TypeLimited company
Industrymotor trade
Headquarters
Surrey
,
United Kingdom
Number of locations
350+ branches (2020) [1]
Revenue£1.1billion (2019)
Number of employees
700+ (2020) [2]
ParentBCA
Websitewww.webuyanycar.com
We Buy Any Car office in Asda car park at Middleton, Leeds

History

The company was founded in 2006 by Noel and Darren McKee with the aim of offering customers an alternative means of selling vehicles intended to be simpler than part exchange or sale.

By 2009, the company had bought 100,000 cars and was growing in popularity across the UK due to its first TV advertisement that featured a break-dancing newsreader and the well renowned catchy webuyanycar.com jingle. Webuyanycar.com also celebrated opening its 100th branch in 2009.

In 2010, the company expanded into the market of buying vans, through the brand webuyanyvan.com.[5]

In 2013, the company was sold to the used car marketplace, British Car Auctions (BCA).[6] In 2015, BCA was floated on the UK stock market. During the same year, webuyanycar.com celebrated the opening of its 200th branch.

Four years later, in 2019, the company opened its 300th branch. In November 2019, private equity group TDR Capital completed the purchase of webuyanycar.com’s parent company, BCA, for a reported £1.9bn.[7]

In September 2020, the company reached a significant milestone and bought its 2 millionth vehicle,[4] just less than 4 years after celebrating 1 million purchases.

Process

The company aims to simplify the process of selling a vehicle with its three-step process. Starting with a free car valuation online with the customer entering their registration, before booking an appointment at their local branch and agreeing to sell their car at the location. One of the company’s main selling points is that by decoupling car selling and car buying, the consumer may get a better deal as opposed to what they would get when part-exchanging.

From the company opening its first branch in Rochdale, they now have over 350 locations across the UK.[8] Webuyanycar.com state that, on average, customers are only 15 minutes away from their local branch[3] where they can sell their car in under an hour.

Webuyanycar.com offer customers payment to their chosen bank account immediately via ‘faster payment’ which can be considered as a much safer convenient option than selling privately.  

Advertising

Webuyanycar.com is well known for its advertisements that make use of repetitive beats and jingles.

The early TV advertisements featured the brand’s widely recognised jingle, with the first TV advert airing in 2009. In October 2015, the webuyanycar.com ‘Break-dancing newsreader’ advert was voted as having the 7th most popular jingle of all TV ads over the past 60 years by The Sun.

In 2010, webuyanycar.com moved away from its original adverts and replaced them with more informative adverts on how to sell a car. These included customers sitting on sofas and hanging from balloons. From 2015 to 2017, the company worked with comedian James Corden as a voice over.[9]

Since 2017, the TV and radio adverts feature TV presenter Phillip Schofield.[10] In 2020, the adverts featured Phil partaking in goat yoga, freestyle football and tiny Phil highlighting webuyanycar.com as an alternative way to sell a car as opposed to a private sale or part-exchange.

Research

Webuyanycar.com undertakes regular industry related research. Polling British motorists, the company produces numerous studies every year, revealing motoring trends and tracking motorist’s habits.

In 2014, the company released the results of a mock Driving Theory Test on its website, revealing that six in ten drivers who sat the test, failed. The study showed that drivers in the 17-21 age group had the lowest pass mark of any age group. Whilst drivers in the 46 to 65-year-old group had the highest pass rate.

Combining data collected from a freedom of information request and a poll of British motorists, webuyanycar.com found that an increasing number of motorists are now relying on dash cam technology, to protect themselves and to monitor other road users. At the time of the study, in May 2018, one in five motorists reported to be using a dash cam daily.[11]

In late 2018, research conducted by the company found that seven in ten Britons spend 11 hours in their cars during the Christmas period. Revealing that on average, families travel 311 miles, just under the distance of London to Edinburgh, to see extended family over the festive period.  Collectively, British motorists travel over 5.9bn miles in cars over Christmas.[12]

References
  1. "Webuyanycar.com - Branch locator". Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  2. "webuyanycar - About us". Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  3. "Webuyanycar.com - Terms & conditions". www.webuyanycar.com. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  4. "Webuyanycar.com - About us". www.webuyanycar.com. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  5. "Webuyanyvan.com - Homepage". www.webuyanyvan.com. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  6. "BCA Marketplace", Wikipedia, 2020-07-29, retrieved 2020-09-25
  7. Media, Insider. "TDR completes BCA takeover". Insider Media Ltd. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  8. "Webuyanycar.com - Branch locator". Webuyanycar.com. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  9. "We Buy Any Car calls £10m advertising review". www.campaignlive.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  10. "WeBuyAnyCar.com: So Schofield by Brothers and Sisters". The Drum. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  11. Hall, Astrid (2018-06-20). "More and more Brit drivers are using a dash cam to monitor their journeys". mirror. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  12. "UK motorists will travel 5.9bn miles this Christmas". Tyrepress. 2018-12-21. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
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