8:07 am, January 14, 2023
Online used car dealer Carvana is cutting more jobs as it faces continued slowing sales.
The US-based firm, that’s well-known for its car vending machines, has begun another series of terminations and cuts to working hours.
The news was first reported yesterday (Jan 13) by The Wall Street Journal, which said Carvana is struggling with $7bn (£5.7m) worth of debts and a slowdown in used car sales.
Positions are going unfilled and a number of operations teams were now working fewer than 30 hours a week, the newspaper reported, after seeing internal emails.
Carvana let around 4,000 workers go in 2022.
Analysts say sales have dropped significantly, with latest figures showing the business shifted 86,000 cars in the fourth quarter of 2022.
That represents a near 24 decrease on the 113,000 secondhand cars Carvana sold in Q4 2021.
Stock is also taking longer to sell, with the average used car sitting on the firm’s website for 97 days in Q4 2022, up on 65 days in Q4 2021.
This week it was also reported Carvana had lost is dealer license in Michigan, effectively closing its sole vending machine near Detroit.
However, the business can remain selling cars in the state via its online offering.
It brings to an end a series of failures by the firm in Michigan, which included delays in handing over registration documents to customers.
Shares rebounded after the Michigan news, rising by 46 per cent, but fell by nine per cent in premarket trade on Friday.
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