12:21 pm, April 7, 2022
Cazoo reported a loss of £180m adjusted for EBITDA for the year ending December 31, 2021.
This was despite the company increasing the number of vehicles sold, revenue and profit per unit, its losses sunk even further from last year’s £103m.
Revenues were record breaking for the online car dealer at £668m, up 312 per cent compared to 2020’s £162m.
The loss for the year without adjustments was a staggering £550m, according to the group.
Gross profit per unit was up £656 to £427 compared to a loss of £229 per car in the previous year.
In total it sold 49,853 cars in the year, on target it says with its aims, and also triple the 14,981 sold in 2020.
The news comes the day after BBC’s Watchdog questioned Cazoo’s 300-point check.
Cazoo added in its statement about the financial year that Q4 had been strong with 16,325 cars sold but profit per unit dropped to £233 due to investments in its car buying channel and a ramp up in its in-house reconditioning capabilities.
Over the year Cazoo launched in Spain and Italy, and purchased companies Swipcar, Brum Brum and Cazana.
In August, it also listed on the New York Stock Exchange, generating approximately $836m (£639.5m) net of fees.
Alex Chesterman, founder & CEO of Cazoo, said: ‘During 2021, we made some important strategic progress, creating further moats around our business. In the UK we brought our vehicle reconditioning in-house well ahead of schedule, a challenging process but one which has significant long-term advantages.
‘We also successfully launched our car buying channel, now sourcing a substantial proportion of our vehicles directly from consumers.’
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Stephen Morana, CFO of Cazoo, added: ‘I am also extremely encouraged by the strategic steps we made in 2021 that we believe have set us up for significant future GPU expansion.
‘We have made sensible investments by bringing UK reconditioning in-house and with the launch of our car buying channel, which has seen incredible traction and in Q4 2021 we sourced over 30 per cent of our retail sales directly from consumers.
‘Whilst these investments have impacted GPU in the short term, the benefits are clear and give us much greater visibility and confidence to deliver on our long-term GPU target of £3,000.
‘We remain laser focused on continuing our path to profitability and while our UK Retail GPU will be sequentially lower in Q1 2022, we expect to see material improvements through the year, up significantly in Q2 2022 and approaching £900 for FY22.’
