WeBuyCars CEO Faan van der Walt says third party sales meant selling vehicles the company does not own.

Van der Walt says WeBuyCars has until now not really done third party sales and all the inventory it sells are vehicles it proactively purchases from sellers, which have predominantly been private individuals and small companies.

“That has been our motto all along, but we have had increasing inquiries from third parties - fleet owners, banks and vehicle dealers - who want to use WeBuyCars to sell vehicles on their behalf.

“On our travels overseas, we have seen many companies doing this, particularly British Car Auctioneers in the UK as well as Manheim in the US, which are doing that very successfully,” he says.

Van der Walt says WeBuyCars has not done third party sales yet simply because they felt it would cannibalise their own market.

“But with our size and volumes right now, we believe we can start doing this without cannibalising our own market considering that we sell about 15 000 plus vehicles a month.

“If we start selling 500 vehicles on behalf of third parties, it will not have a negative impact on our selling but will also enable us to expand, and we have a competitive advantage in that regard where we have a national footprint with the space where we can do this.

“We have now started experimenting with this quite successfully and it’s something we will develop over time.

“Watch this space. It could become something big,” he says.

Van der Walt added that WeBuyCars will probably start looking at buying from dealers in the future “with our third party sales coming into play but right now that is not on the radar for us”.

WeBuyCars’ chief strategy officer, Willem Klopper, confirmed that they have already developed a third party sales solution to enable them to sell units on behalf of other parties.

Klopper added that WeBuyCars has over the past six months significantly advanced its property expansion efforts to achieve its target of selling 23 000 vehicles a month by 2028.

The company previously highlighted its plans to open new supermarket facilities in East London and Rustenburg and that it had concluded a property sale agreement for five hectares of land in the Landsdowne area in Cape Town.

Klopper says it commenced trading ahead of schedule with East London supermarket on 10 June 2024 and the Rustenburg supermarket opened on 1 October 2024.

Both of these supermarkets have 300 parking bays, he says.

Klopper says planning for the Lansdowne development is continuing, with construction expected to be completed before the end of the 2025 calendar year.

He says current estimates are that WeBuyCars will be able to display 1 150 vehicles at this supermarket while it has also added additional bays at its existing sites in an effort to keep sweating its assets.

He says they have relocated their commercial vehicle display at The Dome to an area across the road and have also added 400 parking bays adjacent to the main building.

Klopper says WeBuyCars signed a property sale agreement in August this year to purchase land in Montana in Pretoria, which they plan to develop and complete by the end of 2025.

“We expect to display about 1 000 vehicles at this site.”

Klopper says it also signed a lease agreement in September this year for a larger, more prominently located branch in the Pietermaritzburg area.

They will relocate from the existing supermarket to the new location in December this year, which has the capacity to display about 350 vehicles, he says.

Klopper says that post its financial year to end-September this year, WeBuyCars acquired an existing vehicle dealership in Vereeniging where it plans to commence trading in May 2025.

“Conservatively, we think it can house 400 sales bays at this supermarket,” he says.

Klopper says it also wants to expand parking bays at its George, Polokwane and Mbombela supermarkets in its 2025 financial year and by October this year had already added 150 bays in George and plan to add another 150 bays at Polokwane by January 2025.

WeBuyCars previously highlighted that vehicle buying pods and its commercial vehicle expansion were focus areas.

Klopper says they added 14 more pods during its financial year to end-September and will have 83 pods, a 20.3% increase in the number of destinations, across the country by the end of the year.

“From a buying pod perspective, we are planning to roll out another 14 pods before the end of 2025, targeting larger metro areas and bigger provincial towns across South Africa where we have seen demand for our offering.

“This will bring the total to 97 pods by the end of 2025.

“The average number of vehicles bought per pod is also increasing. Our numbers show a 20% growth year-on-year in the average number of vehicles bought at each pod.

“This illustrates that consumers are getting more accustomed to this channel,” he says.

Van der Walt says WeBuyCars purchased a total of 167 741 pre-owned vehicles in the year to end-September, a 17.8% increase on the previous year.

He says the company’s 16 national supermarkets, prominent online presence and increased sales base enabled them to sell a record 165 185 units in the year, 16.4% more than in the previous year.