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Regulatory Announcement of Inside Information
Published: 20.09.2012 at 8:00
AAA AUTO Leverages 20 Years of Used Car Know-How to Develop New,
Stand-Alone CRM and Specialized Automotive Business Systems
Prague / Budapest, 20 September 2012 – AAA Auto Group N.V. has extended its reach into the Information &
Communication Technologies (ICT) field. The Company’s fully-owned subsidiary AUTOMOTIVE RETAIL
SYSTEMS s.r.o. (formerly CarWay Assistance CZ s.r.o.) is developing two new, stand-alone systems, one for
Customer Relations Management (CRM) and another for used-car pricing, buying and stock management. Both
systems are nearing completion, with operational testing to begin in Q1 2013.
“Over the past 20 years, AAA AUTO has bought and sold some 1.2 million cars and light utility vehicles. During this time,
we also inspected and evaluated several million cars that we didn’t buy and talked to several million potential customers.
We are now putting this experience to work by developing new software solutions for large car dealers. Our systems are
tailored for businesses with annual sales of at least 20,000 new or used vehicles. We expect to sell just one license per
country to ensure exclusivity. We see this as a way to diversify our business,” said Karolína Topolová, AAA AUTO general
director, who was the company’s CIO for four years and also headed the Call Center Department for 14. Rigorous testing of
the systems in AAA AUTO is scheduled to take place starting in Q1 2013. Both systems should be fully operational by the
middle of 2013 and go on sale by the end of that year.
“The new CRM system will enable AAA AUTO and any other companies that decide to use it to better manage their call
center, client retention, and predictive customer calling operations. The second application, provisionally named EBook, is a
real time integrated application for stock management, pricing, stock turn versus pricing optimization, stock location
predictor for the best liquidity versus price and has many more other features that assist in all aspects of the used car
retailing process. It uses data from previous sales but more importantly it utilizes real time datamining data downloaded
every 2 hours from auto servers. The application automates buying and pricing workflows to minimize human error, and
when proactively seeking to buy cars in a market place grades all buying opportunities to ensure the best deals always rise
to the top. All features stem from AAA AUTO’s many years of hands-on experience as the Czech Republic’s biggest used
car dealer with the largest call center in the country,” said Roman Hošek, AAA AUTO CIO. Even at this stage, when both
systems are still in development, the company has already received several inquiries from potential buyers.
“Any company using this stand-alone, independent platform will gain a big head start in its country, as the systems are
unique and basically do not have any competition. I will personally act as a consultant, overseeing implementations in Asia
and the Middle East from my base in Australia, where my children will be attending elementary school from 2015. I take this
as my opportunity to be at least partly active in my post-AAA business retirement,” said Anthony James Denny, AAA AUTO
founder and current majority shareholder. “The basic building blocks of the systems have already been in use at
AAA AUTO for some time, and they assisted us as we defied the current market downturn by growing our revenues, net
profit, and unit sales for 10 consecutive quarters,” added Denny. Other senior AAA AUTO managers will also be available
for consultations during the implementation phase of the selling process of both systems.
Contact:
Petr Tošek
PR Specialist
AAA Auto Group N.V.
Tel.: +420 283 068 572
GSM: +420 734 394 800
E-mail: [email protected]
Pavel Tuček
Financial Analyst & IR Specialist
AAA Auto Group N.V.
tel.: +420 283 068 583
GSM: +420 734 395 245
E-mail: [email protected]
Over its 20 years in operation to date, AAA AUTO Group has gradually expanded its branch network across the CE
region. Currently the network consists of 27 branches in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Russia. In the first half of
2012, AAA AUTO sold 30,437 cars: 21,348 in the Czech Republic, 7,907 in Slovakia, and 1,182 in the Russian
Federation. The Group sold a total of 44,828 used cars in 2011 and, according to the audited consolidated financial
figures for that year, it recorded turnover of EUR 276 million. The Netherlands-based parent company, AAA Auto Group
N.V., has been listed on the Prague and Budapest stock exchanges since September 2007. AAA AUTO holds the SAOP
certificate, issued for consumer safe general business conditions by SOS, the largest Czech consumer protection
organisation. Recently, AAA AUTO bought and revived the Mototechna brand, the former trademark of the largest new
car dealer in socialist-era Czechoslovakia. The new brand will sell only high-quality, almost-new cars. AAA AUTO
currently has over 8,000 vehicles in stock in three countries (CZ, SK, RU).
AAA Auto Group N.V., Amsterdam, Netherlands, with registered address: Dopravaku 723, Prague 8; IC: 28215044
www.aaaauto.nl