GUMTREE Cars, Australia’s number-one destination for privately listed cars, has increased the size of its regional sales team with three new appointments.

Gumtree Cars’ vision is to become Australia’s #1 Motors marketplace. It recently announced its intention to buy Cox Australia Media Solutions which runs CarsGuide and Autotrader. The offer remains subject to ACCC approval.

In a move designed to increase Gumtree Cars’ relationships with the Australian dealer body, Brad Reece has been appointed regional sales manager for Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, Monique Cotton has been appointed regional sales manager for Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, and Phil Barker has been appointed regional sales manager for New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.

Brad Reece joins Gumtree with an MBA and 19 years of automotive experience which spans across the B2C, B2B finance, leasing and fleet management channels.

Monique Cotton joins Gumtree with 10 years of experience in the Australian automotive industry, working across a variety of brands. Most recently, she was a sales manager for AP Eagers Limited, and prior to that a new-vehicle sales manager at Waverley BMW.

Phil Barker brings almost three decades of automotive expertise and experience from his previous roles with Trivett, EGR, Carsales, Automotive Holdings Group (AHG), Merck and Orix Australia Corporation Limited.

The company said that Mr Reece, Ms Cotton and Mr Barker would “be responsible for continuing to bolster Gumtree Cars in the highly competitive autos market”.

“By growing its regional teams, the brand is making significant investments towards making Gumtree Cars number one in Australia and delivering on its partners’ needs,” the company said.

According to Gumtree, the new team members “will play an important role in strengthening the platform’s support network for its dealers and building awareness around the breadth and quality of cars and vehicles available on the platform”.

Richard Dicello, Gumtree’s head of Motors, said: “Our clear vision is to take leadership of auto classifieds in Australia, and it’s through offering true partnership with our dealers that we will get there.

“We see the optimisation of our organisational team being a vital step in delivering what is needed in a changing dealer landscape and to further support and empower our dealers, and we will continue prioritising them in 2020,” he said.

By John Mellor