BonDia: Interview with Ada and Olivier Amengual, owners of the AERO AUTOFACTORIA group

Why did a European car sales company set up in a country like Andorra?
To answer your question, we must first explain who we are and what our economic model is at European level.
AEROAUTOFACTORIA was created 20 years ago in Luxembourg as a company for the sale and purchase of recent vehicles. The country’s geographical location and its taxation have enabled us to sell vehicles at competitive prices and to attract French, Belgian and German customers across the border. We took advantage of a loophole in a national market focused solely on selling new cars and leasing to large local companies. In Luxembourg, local dealers had completely neglected the used vehicle sales segment and we saw a business opportunity.
Over time and still attracted by the concept of Large Distribution, we have decided to expand into the sales segment to professional customers and have become a center for the purchase of recent used cars for European dealers, expanding its range. of products and improving its profitability.
Today, 85% of CAROPTIC’s turnover is based on wholesale trade, while sales to individuals only represent 15%.
The parent company of the company remains Luxembourg with the representation of the HONDA brand as an official dealer. We also have two headquarters in Germany and Spain.
With the advent of new technologies and the rise of online sales, our industry has undergone profound changes. For this reason, we have decided to prepare and face the changes, creating our own platform dedicated exclusively to e-commerce.
In February 2017, we spent a few days on vacation in Andorra. during our stay, we spoke with many inhabitants of the region and discovered the country’s economy and its specificities. A week after crossing the border, we decided to settle in Andorra in two months.
When we arrived in the Principality of Andorra, we had the chance to benefit from the advice of Cases & Lacambra and Auditand, two leading companies in the entire installation process. and with whom we continue to collaborate.
We currently have a team of 15 highly motivated multilingual people involved in the project just like us. Choosing Andorra as a business development destination has become the best strategic decision. The country welcomed us wonderfully.

So what are your short and medium term projects with CAROPTICOM in Andorra?
In just one year, we have doubled the volume of sales to end customers thanks to the real-time response we offer, better online visibility and speed of service. We will soon be moving to a new room of around 600 m2 in the center of the capital. Our goal in 12 months is to form a team of around 100 people and to expand the activity of the Andorran platform to our professional clients and to become a provider of online marketing and lead management services within our sector. We have to make sure that our growth is structured and qualitative. Everything will depend on whether we find the human resources and how quickly we can evolve without reducing the quality of our service. The contact with the customer and the online presence of the company make all the difference.

In this way, we will become suppliers and purchasing centers on the one hand and advisers and online providers on the other hand, in order to improve the experience of our professional customers at all levels.
Why would a dealership turn to your services instead of working alone?
Many European dealers are facing the same problem that we ourselves had a few months ago. They don’t know how to adapt to the web age, they lack resources and computer systems are obsolete. The salespeople themselves cannot handle the day-to-day customer service and cover the inquiries that come online, sales, deliveries and the management of automotive ads on the sales platforms. Today the number one storefront is Internet and hours are 24h / 24h. The customer is generally looking for vehicles in his free time, outside of the conventional hours of commercial establishments. The investment required to achieve real change in dealerships is very large, not to mention the training required by staff. It is much easier and more accessible to hire an outside company that knows the essence of the company, trains its teams and also gets results. Our experience at European level, with many professionals in the sector, is a benchmark. Thanks to CAROPTI-COM, they will benefit from a much broader market vision, will be able to access the purchase of products outside their country and will save a lot of time in terms of hiring, labor disputes and investment. computer science.

How many cars does AEROAUTOFACTORIA sell at group level and where do they come from if they are only an official HONDA dealer?
We sell between 10,000 and 12,000 vehicles per year with a turnover of around 130 million. We buy cars directly from different brands and from European importers. Our sources are tightly controlled, as are the vehicles we market. Sometimes, if the domestic market is saturated with a particular product, we help brands sell lots of vehicles outside their sales network, exporting the lots to other markets. This way of working allows us to offer vehicles at very competitive prices to our buyers.
We work with vehicles with very few kilometers and generally less than 12 months old. The only cars we sell new and unregistered are those of the HONDA brand. We do not want to compete with official dealers in the sale of new vehicles, on the contrary, our vocation is to collaborate by trying to offer them other cars to broaden their offer.
What types of professional profiles are you looking for in CAROPTICOM in particular?
Our first criterion is motivation. You obviously have to have an academic background, but we are not looking for people with very strict requirements. Within our team, we have people with very different programs and this brings immense richness on a day-to-day basis. We need business profiles, but not specifically in the automotive sector, we value people with good humane treatment and language skills as we are a company focused on different European countries.
At management and group level, we want to strengthen the team with an IT director and a human resources manager.
In conclusion, all the programs interest us. We train people. We emphasize that motivation and attitude are key criteria for working with us.
As you know, we are in the middle of the election campaign. How do they see the future of the country?
My husband and I have been in Andorra for a short time, but enough to say that we want to spend our lives there. Two years is not enough time for us to be able to comment on the future of Andorra, what we are seeing is that a generation, ours, is taking over politically and we consider that it is a very positive development. Young Andorrans today have a deep connection to the country, its traditions and its essence, but at the same time they study abroad, travel and bring a new vision to Andorra to face the future of country. We are convinced that we are working to bring our little grain of sand in the economic and social field.

Article published in BonDia

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