Online used car dealer Cazoo is consulting with staff on the closure of all three of its sites in Scotland in a move that could lead to the loss of about 100 jobs.
Scottish staff were told on Wednesday that the company is launching a two-week consultation process across its facilities in Edinburgh, Livingston, and Grangemouth. The cost of transporting cars to Scotland was cited as one of the reasons for the move, according to an employee who was part of that meeting.
A spokesman for the London-headquartered company confirmed yesterday that it is considering closure of its three Scottish sites, leaving its nearest customer hand-over centre in the north of England.
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The Scottish consultation was announced as Cazoo, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, announced its preliminary financial results for the three months to the end of December.
Within that update Cazoo dramatically scaled back on the number of cars it expects to sell in 2023, and said that founder Alex Chesterman will step down as chief executive. Mr Chesterman will take on the role of executive chairman, with chief operating officer Paul Whitehead becoming chief executive.
Cazoo is now looking to streamline its operations amid what Mr Chesterman described as a "challenging economic backdrop". This follows a period of aggressive expansion in the UK with the acquisitions of Imperial Cars in July 2020, subscription service Drover in December 2020, Smart Fleet Solutions in February 2021, and SMH Fleet Solutions in September 2021.
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Asked about operations in Scotland, the Cazoo spokesman said: "In line with the lower unit expectations the company announced for 2023 and the current economic climate, we will be making our operational and logistics networks more efficient through the proposed closure of certain of our vehicle preparation centre and customer centre facilities.
"We have not made any decisions at this point however yesterday we have announced that we will be starting a consultation process with the teams at Livingston, Grangemouth and Edinburgh."
Mr Chesterman – the former boss of video rental company Lovefilm and house-hunting website Zoopla – launched Cazoo in 2018.
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