Founded 1975 Headquarters London, United Kingdom | Traded as LSE: AUTO Revenue 255.9 million GBP (2015) | |
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Area served United Kingdom, Ireland Key people Ed Williams (Chairman)Trevor Mather (CEO) Stock price AUTO (LON) 398.10 GBX -3.90 (-0.97%)2 Mar, 5:05 PM GMT - Disclaimer Profiles | ||
Auto Trader Group plc is an automotive classified advertising business. It specialises in new and second hand automotive sales, including cars sold by private sellers and trade dealers. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Contents
History
Auto Trader was founded in 1975 by John Madejski, who went on to take over Reading Football Club in 1991. John Madejski brought this idea back from the USA, and set up the business with Paul Gibbons in 1977.
The first Auto Trader to be established was Hurst's Thames Valley Trader in 1977. This was followed by the publication of a second title, Southern Auto Trader, which launched in 1981; the business was then known as Hurst Publishing.
European venture capitalists BC Partners bought a stake in the business from John Madejsk in 1998 for £260m; then Guardian Media Group, who had acquired Automart in 1982, merged that business with Hurst Publishing in May 2000 so creating Trader Media.
In 2011 the business became the focus of an online petition by a group called the Motor Traders Advertising Union, proposing a mass pull out by UK motor dealers frustrated by increases in advertising charges. In October 2013, AutoTrader.co.za (Auto Trader South Africa) a subsidiary of the Auto Trader Group was sold off to become an independent South African company.
Then in January 2014 Apax Partners bought the business from Guardian Media Group for £600m. In March 2014 the company re-branded and became known as Auto Trader and in March 2015 Auto Trader Group launched an initial public offering with a market capitalisation of about £2bn.
Printed magazine
The magazine was published weekly in a number of regional editions. Circulation peaked at 368,000 in January 2000, dropping to an average of 87,000 copies a week in 2012, and down to 27,000 in March 2013. In June 2013, after 36 years, the final editions of the printed magazine were published, with the company concentrating on its online business.
Website
Autotrader.co.uk was launched in 1996 allowing users to buy or sell a car online. The site allows users to search for cars and other motor vehicles using their postcode. Autotrader.co.uk the UK's busiest automotive web site which attracts some 10.3 million unique users per month.
Mobile
Auto Trader has had a mobile, initially a Wireless Application Protocol site, since 2002. In July 2008 Auto Trader launched a .mobi site and in July 2009 they launched separate versions for differing handset capability levels. Auto Trader developed their mobile offering further from March 2010 when they released applications for users to search for vehicles using a Windows Mobile, iOS or Android device.