XLerate Group's Pearl, Miss.-based Mid-South Auction is celebrating the reopening of its auction arena following it being damaged by a tornado in early 2014 and its updated facilities, which resulted as part of the rebuilding, as it also introduces its new general manager, Tim Brantley, to the community.

"Tim Brantley was born and raised in Mississippi. Prior to joining Mid-South, Brantley spent 38 years with numerous remarketing assignments with GMAC/Ally. With his relationships in the Mississippi auto dealer community and experience on the sell side of the remarketing industry, we were honored that he chose to join XLerate as our newest General Manager," said Darris McClure, president and COO of XLerate."Tim has worked closely with our former GM, Bob Sullivan, who led the redesign of the new auction arena as well as managed the construction process. Bob will now move forward with XLerate in a senior corporate operations role as VP – Operations and Best Practices. We want to thank Bob again for leading the auction over the last three years and especially during the challenges of rebuilding Mid-South."

Mid-South Auction's "Grand Re-Opening" on January 27 will offer sellers and buyers a chance to reap the benefits of remarketing and buying cars in a brand new arena. The arena now features drop ceilings to enhance lane acoustics with new cameras and software to improve the online dealer experience.

"In April a tornado hit our Mid-South Auction and did extensive damage to the auction arena. We took the opportunity to not only rebuild the auction but also to build a completely new and upgraded arena. Mid-South's new arena will provide one the nicest auction environments in the region forour dealers in the South to buy and sell cars," said Cam Hitchcock, XLerate's CEO.