Meet Jordan Franklin

Vangoo is a trade-only operation that buys, preps and sells commercial vehicles to dealers across the country.

What made you start Vangoo?

Honestly, after the Vans365 sale to Cazoo I stepped out of the industry for a while. When I eventually came back to it, the itch was still there, but I wanted to build something new, on my own terms. It began with a handful of vans, then more and more and before long it had a life of its own.

The real shift this time was how we sold the vehicles. At Vans 365 we were retail focused and I'll admit I used to chase the last pound out of every deal. Trading taught me the opposite. Take a sensible margin, move it on and put the same money straight back to work on the next one. The money is in the volume, not the individual deal. I looked at what a leaner team could turn over working that way, with none of the retail overheads and it clicked. This is a better business.

What did Vans365 teach you that shaped Vangoo?

It helped me grow up. Looking back now, that business took me from a boy to a man. There were proper decisions, hard calls, all of it. I remember when we had reached a few million pounds of stock and were working with Barclays on the financing, they saw my drive and potential and they put me onto an entrepreneurs' programme which really helped me. I learned a huge amount and not just on the good days, probably the tough ones taught me more.

COVID was the real test. A lot of businesses didn't come through it; and we did. Garages were shutting up and down the country and we stayed open and kept trading. That resilience is part of how I run Vangoo now.

What does Vangoo do differently?

We take the hassle away and we put our standard on it. Vans and commercial vehicles have always been sold in a rough-and-ready way, typically with none of the flair or presentation you'd get when buying a car. We treat them differently. When we buy them, we bring the vans back to Vangoo, clean them, check them over and prep them properly before they go anywhere.

A dealer will pay a bit more to us than they'd have paid at auction and they do it gladly, because they know the van's been through our process. If something isn't right, within reason, they can bring it back. If you buy blind at auction and then break down on the way home - that's your problem, but with us, it isn't. That trust in us, is the whole business.

Who is Vangoo built for?

The trade. Dealers, commercial buyers, people who move vehicles for a living and want it quick, clean and reliable. We're deliberately not retail, with no private buyers. We deal with the trade and fleet operators and we do it well.

What drives the way you run it?

Two things: ambition and standards. I'm really particular about how it is all done, from the yard to the smallest detail of the setup. Ambition gets you the deal; standards are what make it worth doing. If we're going to do something, it gets done as well as we possibly can.

I'm obsessive by nature and I love chasing the numbers. I'll still be working deals at night when most people have switched off. The difference to last year is that it isn't just me anymore, we've built a team that thinks the same way. That's what's taken us up a level.

Where do you want Vangoo to be in five years?

I want people in the trade to look at what we've built and say Vangoo were ahead of the game, that it was a smart move, done properly. A serious business that people respect, built to last. That's what I'm chasing.