Kirk O’Callaghan joins Carzam as CEO

Kirk O’Callaghan has joined Carzam as chief executive officer after leaving his role as operations director at Carshop six months ago.

He starts his new role, following a period of gardening leave, alongside former Cox Automotive president and Manheim chief financial officer Michael Buxton, as director, and former Renault retail digital director Ashley Wade as digital marketing director.

Since launching last year, Carzam has aimed to shake up the digital used car market with a strategy to put customer service first and foremost, offer a next-day turnaround on much of its stock and employ a team of high profile automotive industry experts.

The operation is founded by Big Motoring World boss Peter Waddell and former Cox Automotive president John Bailey.

Speaking of his new role, O’Callaghan said: “The day has finally come to join the team at Carzam, I’ve been monitoring the events very closely and it’s been an absolutely fantastic start for the business with some tremendous results.

“Most of all I’m extremely looking forward to working with a team of leading industry players who have a wealth of retail, wholesale and digital automotive experience.

“We’ve had some great talent from within the sector join the business and we plan to continue to build and attract the very best from within our industry going forward.

“We have some very exciting plans for the future, the business model is very scalable and the team is very experienced, focused and energised to deliver on these plans.”

Carzam offers a ‘blended’ approach to online used car buying, which brings together the convenience and pressure-free sales environment of online buying and combines it with reassurance and expertise.

“Our aim is to reinvent the digital journey when people are buying cars, and Kirk is central to that,” explained Waddell.

“We’re at a point in the industry where online and physical car sales are equally important and it’s imperative that we embrace both. With Carzam we do that, by offering access to an unrivalled physical stock inventory but with all of the convenience and simplicity of online buying platforms including home delivery.”