Online car dealer Cazoo collapses into administration putting 200 jobs at risk | Automotive industry

The web automotive vendor Cazoo, which was as soon as valued at $8bn (£6.3bn), has collapsed into administration, placing 200 jobs in danger.

Directors at Teneo have been appointed to the enterprise, which was based by Alex Chesterman, the serial entrepreneur who additionally launched property website Zoopla and Netflix forerunner LoveFilm.

Teneo is now on the hunt for a purchaser for Cazoo’s remaining belongings, together with its on-line market.

“Following our appointment, we proceed to progress discussions with various events on {the marketplace} enterprise and remaining buyer collections centres,” certainly one of Teneo’s directors, Matt Mawhinney, stated in an announcement.

“{The marketplace} mannequin is performing forward of expectations, with sturdy vendor sign-up, and the administration appointment gives us with a chance to safe a sale of the enterprise over the course of coming weeks.”

The corporate’s collapse comes simply two years after the UK-based used-car web site listed on the New York Inventory Trade to a lot fanfare in 2021. It spent a hefty sum sponsoring soccer golf equipment together with Aston Villa and Everton, in addition to horse racing, darts, snooker and cricket to bolster its model.

Whereas it has bought 160,000 automobiles since its launch in 2018, an inflation-induced squeeze on client spending put additional strain on the agency’s funds, forcing it to desert its EU enterprise and leading to greater than 700 job cuts and losses of £700m in 2022.

In early 2023, Chesterman stepped down as chief govt to turn out to be the corporate’s chair, earlier than resigning from the agency in December.

By March this 12 months, Cazoo introduced additional restructuring, together with the sale of a automotive restore centre in Bedfordshire and buyer assortment centres in Birmingham and Bristol, to focus solely on its on-line buy-and-sell platform. The transfer resulted in an extra 720 job losses.

Whereas bosses managed to repay loans and slim down the enterprise, they stated the corporate was nonetheless in need of the capital wanted to maintain the enterprise in the long run. The board stated in a US submitting that it was “in the most effective pursuits of the corporate and its stakeholders to begin the winding up of the corporate”.

Cazoo’s remaining 200 staff are actually in danger, together with 124 who work for {the marketplace} division in London, and 25 on the group’s buyer assortment centres in Manchester and Northampton. Their jobs will depend upon whether or not directors can discover a purchaser, and whether or not the brand new house owners have been prepared to make use of them.

An additional 59 staff – most of that are from the pinnacle workplace and customer support centres in London and Southampton – can be serving to Teneo wind down the enterprise, till they’re not wanted.

Cazoo is now planning to carry a unprecedented assembly with shareholders on 6 June to approve the winding-up.

Chesterman declined to remark.