ATLANTA – Manheim opened the first four-lane operating location in Europe on Nov. 6 at its Manheim Colchester, England, facility. To celebrate the grand opening, Manheim Colchester hosted six sales that together featured more than 3,000 units, the most vehicles ever offered by a U.K. operating location in a single week.

“We want to take both the vendor and buyer auction experiences to a new level, and the launch week could not have gone better,” said John Bailey, CEO, Manheim, U.K. and Europe. “We have solidified Colchester’s position as Europe’s most prestigious operating location in terms of both volume of vehicles offered and the ease with which our buyer and vendor customers can do business. As a single source of vehicles for the U.K.’s top buyers, there simply is no other facility like this in Europe.”

The grand-opening celebration began with a launch sale that featured more than 1,000 vehicles and attracted 580 prospective buyers. Other sales were held throughout the week, including the world’s largest van auction on Nov. 7. More than 700 light commercial vehicles direct from the U.K.’s leading fleets, leasing companies and motor manufacturers were featured.

The new facility, part of a multimillion-dollar investment at Manheim Colchester, will allow vendors to sell their vehicles in less time and provide a more efficient auction process for buyers. The four-lane facility enables Manheim to offer twice as many vehicles to buyers during prime selling times. At 52 acres, Manheim Colchester is the largest operating location in Europe, and the addition of the new facility increases its throughput capacity to more than 170,000 vehicles per year.

“The successful launch of this multilane facility has set the standard for the rest of the U.K. auction industry,” said Chris Cush, general manager of Manheim Colchester. “With the new development now complete and fully operational, we can look forward to creating more local employment opportunities and a reputation for Colchester as the home of auction innovation.”