Cazoo, Europe’s leading online car retailer, which makes buying and selling a car as simple and seamless as ordering any other product online, today announced that it has agreed to acquire Vans365, as it moves to expand its online retail proposition to include commercial vehicles.
Founded in 2012, Vans365 is a leading independent online commercial vehicle retailer in the UK with a team of experienced in-house technicians and customer service specialists based in Bristol, buying and selling hundreds of vans monthly.
The deal will combine Cazoo’s platform and brand with Vans365’s expertise and relationships in the commercial vehicle market and will enhance Cazoo’s customer offering and team and accelerate its planned launch into buying and selling commercial vehicles online later this year.
Cazoo was founded in 2018 and is one of the world’s fastest growing companies in the space of online car buying and selling. The young company has already sold over 40,000 cars online since its official launch less than 2 years ago. Cazoo owns and fully reconditions all of its cars before offering them on its website for either delivery or collection in as little as 72 hours and has thousands of cars available at any time. Its launch into commercial vehicles later this year will further expand the proposition and selection available on its website.
Cazoo will acquire Vans365, which will have 2021 revenues of about €16.68 million with an EBITDA margin of about 9%, for €7.7 million in cash. The transaction is subject to FCA approval, anticipated in the coming weeks, and is expected to have a negligible impact on Cazoo’s FY2021 operating results.
Earlier this year, Cazoo did an IPO, since then, but even before that, the young company has acquired quite a number of online car sales businesses and competitors.
Alex Chesterman OBE, Founder & CEO of Cazoo stated: “The market for commercial vehicles is worth £16bn annually, with over 1 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, Managing Director of Vans365 commented: “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.”
