Copart

Copart Finland is a service provider specialising in salvage vehicles. The company sells vehicles from insurance companies, car dealerships and private customers through online auction. Now, the company is developing its inherently sustainable credentials further. Hannah Barnett learnt more from Managing Director Jan Johansson.

Copart Finland’s business model is sustainable by definition – because it is based on the circulation of vehicles and their parts.

“We were always a sustainable company, with an important role in the circular economy,” said Jan Johansson, Managing Director. “But now, when looking at the insurance and automative space in

Finland and the Nordics, sustainability as a conversation has started to massively increase. So, I felt very strongly about us building our own sustainability programme.”

The history

Copart Finland was established in 2019 as an acquisition of the Dallas-based Copart Inc. Its previous iteration, AVK, was

founded by Finnish insurance companies back in 1966.

“As AVK, we had run auctions over the internet for the last 10 years,” explained Mr Johansson. “But when Copart came into the picture, many things changed. We began using our virtual technology in October 2019 and became a more international company.”

Indeed, Copart has since become a leader in online vehicle remarketing, trading more than three million vehicles a year worldwide via the virtual bidding technology VB3.

Copart Finland is split across four Finnish sites with 83 employees and a €17.5 million turnover. “Before 2019, one could say we were purely a salvage operator,” Mr Johansson said. “But now, we buy

vehicles through many different channels and sell them through our online auction platform. This has been a big change in the company’s modus operandi.”

Alongside the changes in name and operations, Copart Finland also began to consider its impact more closely. Copart Inc published its first sustainability report in October 2022 and Copart Finland soon followed working on its own sustainability programme.

“We chose an external partner with a high level of competence to address the topic of sustainability and to support with t he creation of the programme,” explained Mr Johansson. “Through them, we interviewed our key customers in the Finnish marketplace. All the departments participated in the creation of our sustainability programme.”

The four key pillars of the report are: enhancing circular economy, fostering traffic safety, being a responsible partner and employer, and lastly reducing emissions.

“Taking into account the priorities of the European Union’s waste hierarchy, we reduce waste by selling used cars, enabling the return of the vehicles to traffic,” said Mr Johansson. “Obviously, this reduces the need to manufacture new cars, and we have a role in the recycling of used car parts when we sell vehicles to dismantlers. So, we are enhancing the circular economy.”

Copart promotes the extension of vehicle lifecycles in a traffic-safe way and aims to reduce the waste of resources and environmental problems.

A sustainable process

In line with the EU waste hierarchy, every vehicle Copart receives is assessed for repairability and evaluated for method of sale. The manufacturer’s instructions on the repair of a vehicle are crucial; if a car can be repaired according to the manual of the respective manufacturer, it defines the sale term.

The unrepairable vehicles are sold either to a Finnish dismantler with a relevant environmental permit or to material recycling. The parts obtained from a vehicle at the end of its lifecycle are eventually used as raw material and in energy production. The company is also cooperating with Finnish Car Recycling Ltd (Suomen Autokierrätys Oy), which plays a pivotal role in coordinating the collection, treatment and recycling of ELVs.

A high standard of training is vital to equip all personnel with the relevant skills to evaluate the correct sale term. This involves a large network including the Finnish Road Safety Council, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, and the Finnish Motor Insurance Centre.

SUOMEN AUTOKIERRÄTYS

Suomen Autokierrätys is extremely proud of its long-term partnership with Copart Suomi, and we are delighted to be supporting the company in its sustainability mission.  We look forward to many more years of working together to promote creative green initiatives in the world of motor vehicle circulation.

“We understand our role in the value chain,” said Mr Johansson. “We want to take care of our own yard and business in a responsible way. We also want to work closely with the insurance industry, as over the last few years in Finland, insurance carriers have become very active in sustainability. And it has become a very important topic for us, when it comes to which partner to choose.”

An insurance guarantee

Indeed, a strong partnership with insurance carriers is a crucial part of Copart’s role in managing the lifecycle of a car. Naturally, it is in the interest of both sides to ensure a job well done.

“Sustainability is so important across the board these days,” explained Mr Johansson. “Insurance carriers were the previous owners of this company and guaranteeing that everything is done properly remains crucial for all the carriers we work with. It is part of their risk management and reputation.”

As a result, when Copart started to build up in Finland, and established its sustainability programme, key partners were interviewed to assess their own sustainability credentials.

“We work with the OP Financial Group, which runs Pohjola Insurance,” Mr Johansson said. “We also partner with another big carrier called If, the only panNordic insurance carrier belonging to a Finnish conglomerate Sampo, which also owns Hastings Direct in the UK. And then

we have LocalTapiola, which is a network of independent local regional insurers belonging to a bigger group. These partners all have strong sustainability programmes of their own and are very important to us.”

Copart also employs skilled inhouse investigators, experts in their field, to work alongside the insurance companies and the police in accident investigation.

“In my opinion, this is where we show our role in responsible sustainability,”

Mr Johansson added.

Standing out

Though the company has a lot of moving parts, the auction process remains at the heart of the Copart business. It is important that the auction is transparent, meaning a consumer or a company can compete

The EU waste hierarchy:

1. Reducing the harmfulness of the amount of waste.

2. Reutilisation.

3. Recycling / Reusing.

4. Utilising as energy.

5. Permanent disposal.

equally for all the vehicles that are put on sale.

“We have a technologically advanced auction platform, creating a wider range of competition and allowing parties to join from around the world,” Mr Johansson explained. “This enables the price of all vehicles to reach maximum value. I would say that even though Copart operates in the insurance and automotive space, we are very much a technology company.”

Looking ahead, the company has become a more comprehensive auctioneer over the years, expanding auctions for snowmobiles and motorcycles, as well as appropriately responding the growth of the EV market.

After five years of working at Copart, it is clear that not only has Mr Johansson overseen a period of significant transformation, but that he intends to keep the momentum going.

“It is an extremely fascinating time,” he concluded. “We are young organisation, with an average age of around 36. And some 30 per cent of our personnel are female, including our extended management team, which is not typical for the automotive industry.

“Plenty has already started to change, and I think the pace will only increase. I like to quote one of my colleagues, a young guy under 40. He is passionate about the automotive industry, and he always tells me: ‘Jan, this is the most exciting company within our field of business.’ And if a 38year-old guy who’s been working for us for 12 years believes that, then I’m convinced too.” n