Online car retailer Cazoo's Newcastle customer centre has closed in the wake of a significant restructuring of the company.
Following huge pre-tax losses of £334m in 2021 and a withdrawal of the business from EU countries, the firm's Scotswood Road and Bishop Auckland operations - both servicing and collection and drop-off location points for its online car sales - have closed. The Newcastle centre opened in 2021 with the creation of 20 staff and according to Cazoo underwent £1m investment, turning it into a location where customers could collect or dropping off cars bought from or sold to Cazoo, on top of its home delivery and pick up services.
The Bishop Auckland location - formerly home to Imperial Cars - was opened in 2020 having also received £1m investment to create similar facilities. The West Auckland Road site created 15 jobs at the time. Both North East sites' Google listings now show "permanently closed" notices.
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Earlier this year, Cazoo - which grew quickly having launched in 2019 - announced a revised 2023 plan to "rapidly improve the unit economics of the business". The downsizing of the business included the closures of some vehicle preparation centre and customer centre facilities and jobs cuts.
Cazoo was set up to take advantage of a perceived shift to online car buying and selling, offering customers the option to buy, sell, finance or subscribe to a car entirely online for deliver or collection in as little as 72 hours. The firm owns and reconditions the vehicles it offers for sale and its subscription service - now discontinued for new customers - offers a new car all-inclusive of insurance, maintenance, servicing and tax for a monthly payment.
More details about the restructuring are expected to come alongside full year results for the New York Stock Exchange-listed business this week. But earlier this month Cazoo founder Alex Chesterman said the moves were due to be completed by the end of March.
He said: "The rightsizing of our headcount and operational footprint is well progressed and we expect to complete the restructuring before the end of Q1 2023. At the same time, we have seen significant improvement in our GPU, given the renewed focus on our unit economics."
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