7:33 am, March 31, 2023
Peter Vardy has sealed the deal on the former Cazoo customer centre in Grangemouth – and the site is already open selling used cars.
The experienced franchised dealer took over the former site earlier this month and has made very few tweaks to get it up and running quickly.
The layout inside the dealership is very similar to Cazoo handover centres with branding changed and the forecourt packed with cars customers can browse and buy in store as well as online.
Now branded as part of Vardy’s Carz used car network, the site has around 100 used cars for sale.
The site was formerly owned by Imperial Car Supermarkets which was bought by Cazoo as part of its ill-fated growth spurt in the summer of 2020.
Car Dealer exclusively broke the news in February that Peter Vardy was in talks with Cazoo to take over two of their sites in Scotland – the Grangemouth centre and a prep centre at Livingston.
Vardy told Car Dealer the deal for the prep centre – bought by Cazoo from SMH Fleet Solutions as part of a £70m deal – did not work out, but he was delighted to be opening the new Carz dealership.
Peter Vardy told Car Dealer last night: ‘We had a great conversation with Cazoo about sites in Scotland and having worked in the area with Reg Vardy it’s nice to be back with a great used car concept and great team.
‘I’m really excited about growing our Scotland-wide coverage with CARZ.’
The Carz network operates a remarkably similar concept to Cazoo. Customers can find their used car online with more than 2,000 models to choose from, value their part exchange and arrange finance online.
Once they’re happy to buy, they can have the car delivered to their home or customers can collect it from one of the Carz dealerships of which there are now nine.
The main difference between Cazoo and Carz being that customers can view and buy the cars in a dealership if they want to with the latter.
Inside the Carz dealership at Grangemouth
Cazoo invested £1m in the Grangemouth site and opened it in December 2020. It was the 13th customer centre the used car dealer set up and is based on Glensburgh Road.
Yesterday, Cazoo revealed losses of £704m for 2022 as it booked huge charges for shutting down operations across Europe. In two years Cazoo has lost more than £1.2bn.
On LinkedIn, Vardy added: ‘Earlier this month we opened the doors to our new CARZ Grangemouth dealership, and what a great first month.
‘It’s great to see the dealership start with a strong sales rate and to see the great 5* guest reviews in our first month of trading.
‘This a testament to the hard work and dedication of Scott and the team in Grangemouth, as well as the wider team who helped with the acquisition.’
