Cazoo agrees £6.5m acquisition of commercial vehicle retailer Van365

Cazoo has agreed the £6.5 million acquisition of online commercial vehicles retailer Van365 ahead of its launch into the van market later this year.

The New York Stock Exchange-listed car retail business is expected to gain approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to complete its latest acquisition in the coming weeks.

Bristol-based Van365 expects to deliver revenues of over £14m in 2021’s buoyant CV market, with an EBITDA margin in excess of 9%, according to a statement issued by Cazoo.

The business employs a team of experienced in-house technicians and customer service specialists and currently achieves excellent customer feedback with a 4.8 Trustpilot score, it added.

Alex Chesterman OBE, the founder and chief executive of Cazoo, is preparing to further accelerate Cazoo’s growth with its shift into the CV sector as it makes preparations to expand its retail offering into Europe.

Commenting on the Van365 acquisition, Chesterman said: “The market for commercial vehicles is worth £16bn annually, with over one million vans sold each year in the UK, which expands our addressable market and is a natural product extension for us.

“The acquisition of Vans365 will accelerate our planned launch of buying and selling commercial vehicles online later this year and will enhance both our customer proposition and team and I look forward to welcoming the Vans365 team to Cazoo.”

Jordan Franklin, Vans365’s managing director, said: “Like Cazoo, customer obsession is at the heart of Vans365’s success and we’re delighted to be joining the Cazoo team to take our online proposition to the next level.

“We have built strong supply relationships and achieved excellent customer feedback with a great team who have strong sector expertise and are looking forward to joining forces with Cazoo.”

Cazoo now claims to have sold over 40,000 cars online since its launch less than two years ago.

Since its launch it has acquired Imperial Cars, to accelerate the creation of a physical retail presence across the UK, vehicle preparation businesses Smart Fleet Solutions and SMH Fleet Solutions, subscription providers Cluno and Drover, and the vehicle valuations provider Cazana.

Last month it published financial results for the first half of 2021 which revealed that the £5 billion-valued online car retailer had delivered a £69m adjusted EBITDA loss in the period.

Its results for a period, which saw used cars appreciating in price at an unprecedented rate due to supply shortages showed that, despite revenues up 521% to £248m as gross margin rose 9ppts, it failed to achieve profitability in the period to June 30.