To meet the region’s growing demand for inventory and reconditioning services, Manheim Central Florida has converted a building once used to host night sales into an 8,500-square-foot mechanic facility dedicated to retail reconditioning, according to a May 26 press release.

With this service, Manheim delivers frontline ready vehicles, enabling clients to devote more time to customer pay work and focus on their other retail operations.

The transformation began in late 2018 when Manheim Orlando reached capacity for retail reconditioning and looked to nearby Manheim Central Florida for help. That location had unused space in a multipurpose building that hosted regular night sales and outfitted it with 10 mechanic lifts to create a dedicated space for retail reconditioning. The move created capacity for both locations and allowed Manheim Central Florida clients to save the cost of transporting their units to Manheim Orlando for reconditioning.

“This is an excellent example of how Manheim’s Market Centers structure delivers greater opportunities and efficiencies for clients when nearby auctions work cooperatively to share support functions,” said Catherine Woodall, assistant vice president, Reconditioning Operations for the Orlando Market Center, which includes Manheim Orlando and Manheim Central Florida.

Fast forward to 2020. Consumer demand was returning following the pandemic, and clients needed to get their inventory front-line ready. As a result, Manheim Central Florida reconditioned a record 1,200 vehicles in July.

“Going all-digital in the early months of COVID-19 gave us an opportunity to rethink how we were using our additional lane space in the night sale building,” Woodall said. “We decided that once our auction re-opened for in-person sales, we would move the night sale to the main building and expand the existing mechanic shop to accommodate additional work.” The building is now fully transformed with 18 lifts, a large parts room and a reconditioning office.

Woodall attributes this growth in demand to several factors: “Florida is a very appealing market for acquiring inventory because vehicles here tend to have lower mileage and are well maintained, so they typically have lower reconditioning costs when compared to other markets. Additionally, the clients we service are starting to expand their footprints, whether it’s traditional brick and mortar stores or digital retailing platforms, increasing their needs for front-line ready vehicles. And finally, Orlando is the largest rental car market in the world, and Manheim Central Florida’s location less than 10 miles from Orlando International Airport makes us an attractive option to service rentals.”