CarMoney, part of the UK dealership group Peter Vardy which this year claims its 100-year anniversary in car financing, went live in Australia this week (www.CarMoney.net.au) after opening its first office in Perth.

The Perth office of CarMoney Oceania Pty Ltd becomes headquarters for Australia and because the business is conducted online, the company doesn’t currently see the need to expand its physical presence to other regions.

Newly appointed chief executive and experienced luxury-car dealer principal Stuart Mackay told GoAutoNews Premium that the business is a finance broker and deals with more than 30 lenders.

“The business is backed by Peter Vardy Group as the parent of CarMoney in the UK,” he said.

Stuart Mackay

“As finance brokers, we aggregate under the Fintelligence (Queensland finance aggregators) platform that works through a CRM link with any inbound leads set up through APIs.

“The platform gives us access to 30-plus lenders so we can assess which lenders might be best for the customer based on the online profile that the customer has completed.”

Mr Mackay claimed that CarMoney’s point of difference was the speed of executing the loan from contact to settlement.

“Proper customer service tends to be lacking in the finance industry and one of the problems is that the customer is often waiting for hours, sometimes days, for a response,” he said.

“That’s not acceptable. We also check and ensure the documentation is correct so there’s no delay when it comes to the customer picking up the car. It has to be a great partnership for the customer right through the process.”

CarMoney has a three-pronged approach to attracting business in the UK, targeting customers such as families with retail consumer finance and dealers who don’t have their own credit licence.

“They don’t have business managers and generally they’re selling used cars,” he said.

Peter Vardy

“Most agents and franchises have got their first and second string lenders but we are looking at business from car dealers who use broking houses.

“The third target is the classified partners, such as CarMoney partnering with AutoTrader in the UK. This is where we can be the main partner with these sites by providing access to finance online.”

CarMoney has opened a physical office in the Perth northern satellite city of Joondalup with four staff and says it already sees scope for expansion.

In the UK, CarMoney started from a clean sheet in 2016 with five staff and now has 186 employees – growing at 15 staff a month – and is the UK’s third-biggest automotive finance broker. 

Mr Mackay said he expected to have 15 staff by the end of this year and 20 staff by the end of 2024.

“The move to Australia is the first outside of the UK,” he said.

“CarMoney was looking for international growth and Australia is a good fit as a mature market with similar car buying histories and customer needs.”

UK-based CarMoney managing director of Franchising and International Growth, Robert Lujan, said that the Australian market was “quite traditional in terms of securing financing.

“We believe CarMoney is perfectly positioned to shake up the market; providing a simplified and consistent financing journey for customers looking for mobility solutions,” he said.

Peter Vardy, CEO of Peter Vardy Group, plans to visit the Perth operation next month. He said it was an exciting step to start its first overseas business in Perth, Western Australia “not least because it was in Perth, Scotland, that we opened our first dealership in 2006.”

The Peter Vardy Group was established by Peter Vardy, the son of Sir Peter Vardy who operated the public-listed UK company Reg Vardy plc that had new and used prestige car dealerships. Reg Vardy plc was bought by listed auto retailer Pendragon in 2005. 

After exiting that business, the family established the Peter Vardy Group which is a family-run business operating eight CARZ supermarkets across Scotland and represents premium brands Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, BMW, and Mini in six Scottish sites. The Peter Vardy Mobility division offers rental and leasing options to both businesses and consumers.

The Peter Vardy Group donates 10 per cent of its profits annually to good causes via the Peter Vardy Foundation. It also founded and supports Gen+, a charity providing online leadership programs for all school children in Scotland.

Peter Vardy Group’s CarMoney division has overseen the funding of nearly 20,000 vehicles and secured $A2.2 billion in deal funding in the past 12 months. 

The company works with about 700 car dealerships and established car sales platforms, including Auto Trader, Motors.co.uk, Gumtree, Experian, and Codeweavers.

By Neil Dowling