You may have heard: the auction site for the car trade CarsOnTheWeb is now called OPENLANE Europe. CEO Johan Meyssen frames the change of brand name and makes some revelations.


Why a brand change?

Johan Meyssen: "In February 2019, CarsOnTheWeb (COTW) was acquired by KAR Auction Services (NYSE: KAR), a global provider of remarketing and technology solutions. With the recent brand change, we are now fully integrated into the KAR family. As a true OPENLANE brand, we can now further develop our proven, profitable business model through openlane.eu. As OPENLANE Europe, we now have the power to deliver seamless, easy-to-use, and digitally connected services worldwide, to continue to grow and improve our service."



What changes will the acquisition bring in the short term?

"Initially, we will continue to offer our buyers and sellers a robust online car auction market in the same way as before," says Meyssen. "As we are now part of a large, powerful and global brand, over time they will benefit from further integration of KAR's technology, data and services. The new developments have only one goal: to sell vehicles online in the best possible way."


What are the medium-term plans?

Johan Meyssen: "OPENLANE Europe will further integrate its services into the platform to create a leading marketplace for vehicle buyers and sellers. We will continue to operate our sales activities at our locations in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, while serving our customers in more than 50 European countries. We are always looking for geographic expansion opportunities in mature automotive markets, while maintaining a strong focus on using OPENLANE Europe's existing footprint to leverage our products and services, such as finance, logistics and data analytics solutions.


How do you view the competition in Europe?

While recognising that there is competition, we remain focused on what we do best: being the leading cross-border car remarketing platform in continental Europe. OPENLANE Europe offers comprehensive, VAT-compliant payments, document transfer and post-sales processes to support the 97 percent of customer transactions involving cross-border sales. We do this more smoothly than our competitors," Meyssen concludes.