10:45 am, October 17, 2022
Losses at online used car dealer Cazoo more than trebled to £329m last year.
Accounts at Companies House for the year ending December 31, 2021 show that the £102.7m loss the business recorded in 2020 plummeted to £329m in 2021.
Its EBITDA was readjusted to minus £179.9m from the minus £81.2m the year before.
Revenue rocketed, however, from £162.2m in 2020 to £667.8m over the same period.
The accounts were filed under Cazoo Holdings Ltd and for its group of companies, aka Cazoo.
The number of vehicles Cazoo last year jumped from 12,097 (in 2020) to 34,731.
The firm also turned a profit on the vehicles it was selling which amounted to £427 gross profit per unit. Cazoo was losing £229 per unit in 2020.
Cazoo said the profit per unit was achieved due to an increase in the number of vehicles it had sold, ‘reconditioning efficiencies, reducing days to sale and growing ancillary services’.
Average monthly users on the firm’s website came to 1.6m compared to 763,000 the year before. Cazoo put the rise down to its ‘investment’ in ‘marketing and increased brand recognition’.
Cazoo said it has approved an operating plan through to December 31, 2023 which ‘will move the business towards break even, targeted in 2023’.
It said that a break-even target will be achievable without the need for further fundraising and forecast a cash balance of over £100m at December 31, 2023.
The company pointed to its ongoing exiting of its European operations which it believes will save itself over £100m by the end of 2023 – hence there being no need to raise any additional external funding.
In February, it sold two of its customer collection centres for £13.7m and leased them back for 20 years.
The results also detailed the businesses Cazoo purchased during 2021, which comprised Drover in January 2021 for £65.4m, Smart Fleet Solutions and Cluno Gmbh in February 2021 for £39.1m and £60.4m respectively, Cazana in September 2021 for £23.7m, SMH Fleet Solutions in September 2021 for £76.5m, Swipcar in November 2021 for £23.6m and Vans 365 in December 2021 for £7.9m.
It announced savage cuts earlier this year, saying it will now focus on its used car retail operation.
Cazoo said it still believes it’s ‘well positioned’ to continue its aim to ‘transform the car buying experience across the UK’.
