Merlin Car Auctions Ireland

Over 10,000 vehicles sold at Merlin Car Auctions in 2011

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Deloitte Best Managed Award

Merlin Awarded Top Accolades!

We are delighted to announce that Merlin Car Auctions were awarded the highly respected accolade of Deloitte Best Managed Company at an award ceremony held in the Burlington Hotel in Dublin on Friday (4^th March 2011). The Deloitte Best Managed Companies Awards Programme recognises indigenous Irish companies across the island of Ireland that are operating at the highest levels of business performance. The programme seeks to identify best-managed companies through an evaluation process that extends beyond financial results.

From L-R: David Byrne, Group Managing Director, Joanne Cranley Group HR & Marketing Manager, Ed Byrne, Corporate Services Manager

Innovation a key source of future growth

We were also singled out among the 20 winning companies and awarded a diploma from the Irish Management Institute. The IMI diploma is a nationally recognised qualification, accredited and awarded by University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork.

Announcing the special award Dr Tom McCarthy, Chief Executive of the Irish Management Institute (IMI) said, “Each year we try to identify one company from among the 20 Best Managed that shows in a practical way how they embody the current theme of the programme and award them a place on one of the IMI's suite of Postgraduate Diplomas. These courses range in subjects from Management, Strategy & Innovation, Leadership, Strategic Human Resource Management, Business Finance, Marketing with Digital Marketing to Executive Coaching and allow these already high performing companies continue to develop their people and ultimately their organisation’s management capability.

From L-R: Pat Cullen, Managing Partner, Deloitte; Tom McCarthy, Chief Executive, Irish Management Institute; David Byrne; and Damian Fadden, Director, Irish Life Corporate Business.

This year we looked at how the companies had worked to reassess their business models and worked to transform those models in order to grow the company in a sustainable way through the difficult operating conditions they currently face and beyond. As in previous years, the task of identifying one company from among the winners was not an easy one.

Merlin Car Auctions showed that they had re-evaluated their business model, focusing on innovation as a key source of future growth as well as developing their talent strategy to help them identify the right people from the start, bringing them into the business and developing them and in turn the company, as they progress. It is the way in which Merlin Car Auctions were able to put a mirror to the company and identify these key areas to prioritise that made them stand out and allow them develop a crucial advantage in developing and growing their company in a sustainable way.”

We underwent a number of phases in the competition and benefited from the advice and feedback of coaches, Ronan Nolan and Pascal Brennan from Deloitte and Irish Life Corporate Business during the process.

This is the third award that we have received in recent months. We also received the Innovation of the Year award at the Irish Motor Industry Awards in November. This was for the Merlin Live Online facility which has revolutionised auctioneering by allowing interested parties to log on from anywhere and partake in the auction taking place in Naas or Kylemore.

We are delighted to have received the very prestigious award. We have been working hard to keep our company operating at the highest standards for our customers at all times. We continue to push the boundaries of innovation. Just last week we held our first exclusively online auction which was a fantastic success. Our objective for our online sales is to extend our service to reach more people and make buying a car online a simple and convenient purchase.

Highest Levels of Business Performance

Deloitte’s Ronan Nolan, who acted as Merlin’s mentor in preparation for the awards commented “I was most impressed with Merlin’s management style from our very first meeting with David Byrne and his colleagues. They demonstrated a very clear approach to planning and communication, and in particular have a great ability to adapt to challenging business conditions. I believe Merlin Car Auctions are very worthy winners of the Deloitte Best Managed Companies Award.”