2:35 pm, March 9, 2023
A panel of leading independent dealers have slammed the ‘arrogance’ of Cazoo and other online disruptors who ‘don’t know what they’re doing’.
Speaking at Car Dealer Live at the British Motor Museum earlier today, Jamie Caple said the Alex Chesterman-led outfit had been ‘naive’ about the challenges of the used car industry.
The Car Quay boss also said the firm ‘deserved’ its recent tough spell as its share price continues to tumble.
Speaking to host James Baggott, he insisted that independent dealers did not fear the disruptors and were capable of matching them when it comes to selling cars online.
‘I thought they were very naive and they thought they could come in and change things,’ he said.
‘Coming in and saying “You guys are rubbish, you don’t know what you’re doing and we’re going to come in and change everything” has just come back to bite them, hasn’t it?
‘We don’t fear them. Online selling is part of the business now, but I have to say that the human being in the processes is the most important part.
‘The disruptors have been good for us. I don’t want anyone to lose their jobs or anything like that, but these guys don’t know what they’re doing and their share price is collapsing.
‘You do just think “You kind of deserve that a little bit” without being bitter and twisted!’
Also on the panel was Urban Car Company boss Stuart Saunders. He likened recent online disruptors to previous start-ups that have tried and failed to conquer the used car market.
‘The word that comes to mind is arrogance. It’s arrogance coming into the market and thinking that we don’t have a clue about how to run a business, how to deal with customers, and that they can come in and just change the world,’ he said.
‘We’ve seen disruptors before. I remember Tesco at one stage came in and tried to do something, Richard Branson did something with Virgin and there have been other disruptors.
‘I think they’ve all come in with a “We can change the world” attitude looking at the business from afar, but the used car business is very unique.
‘You’re dealing with a product that is not new.
‘You can’t go to a manufacturer and say you want 30 of these to arrive on Monday, and I don’t think the people that come in can ever get their heads around that, and that’s why they end up exiting at the point they do.’
‘We became a Cazoo or a Cinch within a couple of weeks’
Nigel Hurley, CEO of CarShop, conceded that the likes of Cinch and Cazoo had changed the way the used car industry operates.
However, he said they failed to capitalise on the pandemic and allowed traditional retailers to develop their own online sales models.
Hurley added that the new wave of online retailers had ‘underestimated’ car dealers’ resilience.
‘We were closed fully or partially and travel was restricted and they didn’t flourish as well as they should have done.
‘I think what actually happened is the retailers adapted very quickly. I think as a consequence of that, we became good at what we now call omnichannel retailing.
‘There was a point where we very, very quickly had to re-engineer our sales process to sell purely online.
‘We became a Cazoo or a Cinch almost within a couple of weeks of that situation hitting.
‘They became a catalyst for us to adapt and I think what they’ve underestimated is probably the resilience of the people that work in industry.’
He said: ‘Most of the people that I know that have reached senior positions have done so through coming through the organisation from the ground – very humble beginnings.
‘I think as a consequence of that, the knowledge that these people have gained over that period of time, and the resilience that they’ve built up, has helped them to sort of really adapt to that change.’
Also taking place at today’s conference, sponsored by Auto Trader, were keynote interviews with Cambria Automobiles CEO Mark Lavery and Google UK’s automotive industry manager Ben Gault, a franchised dealer panel and a manufacturer panel, plus White Paper presentations from event partners Cox Automotive and Close Brothers Motor Finance as well as headline sponsor Auto Trader.
Pictured at top from left are James Baggott, Nigel Hurley, Jamie Caple, Stuart Saunders and Premier GT CEO David Trigg
