Copart, Inc., headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is a provider of online vehicle auction and remarketing services in the US, Canada, and the UK. that has acquired or opened operations in Germany, Ireland, Brazil, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and Finland.
Overview
Copart provides vehicle sellers with a range of services to process and sell salvage and clean title vehicles over the internet, using its patented virtual auction technology. Copart's buyers are principally used vehicle dealers, dismantlers, rebuilders, exporters and, at some facilities, the general public. Vehicle sellers at Copart auctions consist primarily of insurance companies but also include banks and financial institutions, charities, vehicle dealers, fleet operators, government agencies and rental car companies. The majority of vehicles Copart sells on behalf of insurance companies are either damaged vehicles deemed a total loss or not economically repairable by the insurance companies or are recovered stolen vehicles for which an insurance settlement with the owner has already been made. Copart, through its Copart Direct division, also purchases vehicles directly from the general public for resale.
In 2012, Copart relocated its corporate headquarters from Fairfield, California, to Dallas, Texas. Copart's Dallas headquarters building consists of approximately of leased office space.
History
Copart was founded in 1982 by Willis J. Johnson in Vallejo, California. Willis Johnson began expanding Copart in the early 1990s through private loans and equity. By the early '90s, the company had grown to four locations in northern California; and by March 1994, it had added another eight new facilities, culminating in the acquisition of the largest volume seller of salvage in the United States, North Texas Salvage Pool of Dallas, Texas. Willis Johnson began developing Copart's information technology in the 1990s. The first main step in this process was the creation of the Copart Auction System in 1997, which was designed to unify and support the growing business as well as allow Copart facilities and sellers to access information, generate reports, and increase operating efficiencies. The next step came in 1998 with Copart's introduction of internet bidding—a departure from the industry standard of local physical auctions. As Internet bidding grew in popularity, Copart developed its online auction platform, VB2, which it implemented in 2003. VB2 technology opened the sales process to registered buyers and sellers worldwide. In fiscal year 2004 in North America and fiscal year 2008 in the U.K., Copart discontinued all live auctions and began remarketing vehicles through VB2. Copart now sells more than one million vehicles each year through VB2 technology. On March 17, 1994, Copart had its initial public offering at $12 per share and debuted on the NASDAQ under the symbol "CPRT." Copart's IPO of 2.3 million shares of stock provided the company with the means to become a national company.
