9:38 am, December 29, 2025
Used car retailer Cinch clocked up another £100m loss before tax after revenues topped £1bn last year.
In its latest accounts to the end of March 2025 – released days after Christmas – Cinch said pre-tax losses improved 19% to £100.3m, down from £123.6m the year before.
The company said these losses were ‘consistent with the stage of development and ongoing investment in the business’.
In the report, Directors said Cinch’s parent company, Constellation Retail Group Ltd, was prepared to ‘support the company for at least 12 months’ from the date the balance sheet was signed.
Revenue topped £1bn for the year, up from £928m the year before.
Cinch is owned by Constellation Automotive Holdings, the TDR Capital-backed group which owns the auction house BCA, the car buying firm We Buy Any Car, and the car dealer group Marshall Motor Group.
Separate accounts show Marshall profits halved during the same period.
Cinch originally launched as a used car listing site in July 2019, but pivoted to a B2C model in October 2020. It has never made a profit.
During the reported year, Cinch carried out a complicated reorganisation of the business, still under the Constellation umbrella, which saw a £116.1m internal debt written off in exchange for shares.
This changed where Cinch sat in the group, but did not change the ultimate controlling party.
It also switched further away from its original plans to be an online-only used car seller, opening physical stores in Northampton, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Derby, Maidstone and Gatwick.
The firm said these were used for test drives, hand overs and aftersales and had helped reduce delivery costs.
During the year, Cinch also quietly introduced home delivery charges – moving away from the free delivery model it originally set up with. Customers are now charged for deliveries and for collections at some We Buy Any Car sites. Collections are ‘free of charge’ at its handover sites.
Cinch said the move was designed to introduce a new revenue stream and rein in delivery costs.
Although Cinch does not reveal sales volumes – only that sales increased 16% during the year. And it revealed that repeat customers now account for 10% of its sales
However, it does reveal its online marketplace averaged 7,358 cars listed during the year.
Cinch said it allows ‘third parties’ to advertise their cars on the platform, including group companies, and as of the end of the year 3,456 of the cars advertised for sale were owned by the firm.
During the year, Cinch took full operational control of three preparation sites and as part of that move acquired around 3,800 cars that were undergoing refurbishment. After a review, one of those sites was closed in March.
In the annual report, Cinch explains that its major sponsorship deals ended during the year which included sponsorships of Tottenham Hotspur, Crystal Palace, the England & Wales Cricket Board and the LTA Queen’s Tournament. It did add a short, four-month sponsorship of the Darts Premier League in February, though.
Cinch’s loss for the year included a £16.3m depreciation and amortisation charge and £11.6m of finance expenses. Net assets for the company improved to £41.3m, from £11.5m the year before, and no dividends were paid.
