Eastbourne Car Auctions (ECA) has stepped up its expansion drive with the appointment of Carol Stevens to the newly created position of national sales manager.

ECA’s move in the second half of last year into a new purpose-built complex more than double the size of its previous location, has already brought a significant surge in the number of people bidding for vehicles.

Stevens role will be to focus on business development across all vehicle sectors, utilising her experience, knowledge and business relationships to enable ECA to achieve its growth aspirations.

Jon Mitchell, managing director of family-owned ECA, said: “We have witnessed a rise in interest both in the auction hall and online in the ex-fleet and main agent part exchange vehicles entered in sales since moving to our new location and making our technology investment.

“The new site alongside an ever-increasing rise in online bidders means that we have seen the number of buyers attending physical auctions and logging on to sales electronically increasing 15% through the final quarter of 2012 and into the first weeks of 2013.

“We have a growing audience that has an appetite to buy cars and commercial vehicles and the appointment of Carol will, we believe, result in more vendors using ECA to dispose of vehicles.”

Prior to joining ECA, Stevens spent 15 years at British Car Auctions, in various roles including sales, business development, account management and, more recently, in transport and vehicle inspections and online vehicle sales.

Mitchell said: “There is a well-documented national shortage of high-quality vehicles available for sale as a consequence of the recession, but we believe that our stability and longevity coupled with first-class customer service and excellent track record of auction results is attractive to sellers and that we can further increase the number of cars and vans we sell annually.”