Manheim Investments, Inc. history

But he wanted to go into business for himself and in 1936 moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, some eight miles south of Manheim, where he started a Firestone tire dealership followed by Lancaster Sales Co., an automobile business located on Manheim Pike between Lancaster and Manheim.

Manheim was established in 1945 as a wholesale vehicle auction operation.

The refined operation thrived, so that by 1959 the auction was running three lanes of cars through its building and it became the largest auto auction in the world.

Then, in 1967, the Fredericksburg Auto Auction in Fredericksburg, Virginia, was acquired.

An onsite reconditioning center was added at the main auction site in 1968, leading to “Factory Sales Accounts,” in which company cars and rental cars were reconditioned to be auctioned off to dealers.

Cox’s Manheim division nearly doubled in size overnight in 1991 when it merged operations with General Electric Capital Corporation and Ford Motor Company, resulting in a company that took the name Manheim Auctions, but remained under the control of Cox Enterprises.

In 1996 Cox Enterprises installed a new president and chief executive officer at Manheim Auctions, choosing Dennis Berry, the publisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Another 20 auction sites were added in the $1 billion acquisition of ADT Automotive Auctions in 2000.

In 2001 another $1 billion was earmarked to expand the business.

The first simulcast sale was then conducted in 2003.

New auction sites were acquired in Florida and Canada, and an operation was also launched in China in 2006.