Motor Trader The award-winning and longest running UK magazine for car retailing professionals. Your first stop for News, Jobs and Reports for the motor industry.
Cazoo was in the news again with its purchase of Imperial Car Supermarkets. There is a lot of interest in what it is doing, a lot of money behind it and curiosity to see whether it can deliver where so many have failed in the past.
Cazoo has pitched itself as a disruptor coming into the used car market and doing something different. This might have been the case perhaps 15 years ago but franchised dealers and independent used car dealers now have websites and digital offers that set high standards. Look at the investment dealers are putting into their websites and digital services and you can see just how competitive they are. Look at the Motor Trader award winners in the used categories and you can see just how good they are. Look at how many sites now offer transactions online, even if the take up has not been that great so far. The latest move by Auto Trader into automating finance shows the direction of travel for motor retailing.
At face value, the Imperial deal looks like a U-turn. Cazoo was launched as an online retailer only, using BCA back end facilities and services.
This deal is all about pragmatism. Imperial will give Cazoo a network of storage, distribution, aftersales and collection hubs, which it did not have before.
It also provides Cazoo with some scale. Imperial was established in 2006 and has grown to 18 retail sites across the UK including Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter, Ipswich, London, Portsmouth and Southampton, offering over 2,500 cars for sales. Cazoo currently has 1,600 on its site. Imperial is the ninth biggest used car supermarket in the UK with annual turnover of £201m, according to the most recent Motor Trader Top 50 Independent Dealers.