Cazoo publishes first quarter results

Independent online car retailer Cazoo has healthy first quarter results for 2023, with 18,679 vehicles sold and revenues of £247m.

This represents a decrease of seven per cent and 11% respectively on 2022.

Paul Whitehead, chief executive officer, said: “I am very pleased with our performance in the first quarter of 2023. Our focus on unit economics, together with the restructuring changes, is starting to bear fruit as evident in the significant improvement in Retail GPU to £980 in the first quarter of 2023. Whilst the broader economic environment remains challenging, demand was robust in the quarter and we sold 13,314 retail cars as our online proposition continues to resonate with consumers due to the selection, transparency and convenience of using our platform.

“We remain laser-focused on improving our unit economics, optimizing our fixed cost base and maximizing our cash runway. In quarter one 2023, we delivered positive progress to further increase our Retail GPU with continued quarterly sequential growth in Retail GPU of 64% and are very encouraged to have already achieved over £1,200 in March, which we set as our target for the full year.”

He continued: “Our cash position remains strong with £215m of cash and cash equivalents and approximately £60m of self-financed inventory. During the quarter, we took the difficult decision to reduce our headcount materially in order to optimise our fixed costs which resulted in about £13m of one-off costs.

“We anticipate finishing the year with between £110m and £130m of cash and between £15m and £25m of self-financed inventory. We reiterate our guidance for 2023 and remain fully focused on delivering profitable growth.”