Online car retailer Cazoo has opened two customer centres – including its first one in Wales – on former Imperial Car Supermarket sites.
The Cardiff and Birmingham sites were taken over by Cazoo in July when it bought Imperial, as revealed exclusively by Car Dealer.
Cazoo – founded by Alex Chesterman – says it has ploughed £1m into each of the Cardiff and Birmingham centres, creating 15 new jobs per site.
The jobs are both customer-facing and for vehicle servicing.
They come after ‘hundreds’ of former Imperial staff were made redundant in wide-ranging cuts.
Cazoo also opened centres in London, Manchester and Bristol earlier this month (Sept) and said it planned to open 16 sites across the UK before the end of 2020, creating more than 200 new jobs in the process.
The ex-Imperial Cars sites are being turned into distribution hubs, with buyers able to collect their cars or have them delivered. Customers can also browse for cars online at the centres with purchases made online as well.
The move to transform the business from an online-only retailer to one with physical sites led to some commentators and dealers branding the move a ‘U-turn’.
Neil Smith, retail director at Cazoo and former operations direction at Imperial Cars, said: ‘We have been delighted by the overwhelmingly positive response of consumers to our online car-buying proposition.
‘With our ever-increasing number of sales, these new customer centres will provide more options to our customers on when and how they want to receive their Cazoo car and will allow us to serve them better through our own service centres.’
He added that Cazoo was excited to be opening the centres ‘as we reinvent the car-buying experience and continue our mission to provide better selection, transparency, convenience and peace of mind to used car buyers across the UK’.
Pictured at top is the Cazoo customer centre in Cardiff
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