The Horror trip by the online car dealer Cazoo
in Germany has an end. After the British company announced its withdrawal from the local market in September 2022, a buyer has now also been found for the German business. With Vive La Car, a competitor from the business takes over automobilesubscriptions to Cluno GmbH. By purchasing Cluno in February 2021, Cazoo once gained access to the German market.
Now all remaining Cluno employees will slip under the umbrella of “The Platform Group” based in Wiesbaden. This recently announced the takeover of Vive La Car. As part of the deal, Vive La Car will take over the contracts with “several thousand” Cazoo customers. Both sides agreed not to disclose the purchase price. Cazoo once put the equivalent of around 70 million euros on the table for Cluno. A medium-high double-digit million amount is likely to flow to the British now, rumor has it in the market.
Cazoo was launched on the German market at the end of 2021 and wanted to use aggressive marketing methods to compete with classic car dealers and newcomers like Auto1. In the current season, the company’s logo can be seen on the jerseys of Bundesliga soccer club SC Freiburg and basketball champion Alba Berlin. Engagements that cost Cazoo several million euros.
Turbo growth was followed by implosion
But already in the spring of 2022, Cazoo threatened to run out of money. Investors were in the wake of the economic turmoil resulting from the Russian war of aggression against the Ukraine nervous and demanding that the online car dealer switch from growth to profitability. Founder Alex Chesterman (53) then prescribed a radical austerity course for Cazoo, which he presented in September expensive stores bought in Germany, France, Italy and Spain again
.
After the implosion, Cazoo is now also trying to get out of the expensive advertising contracts. An agreement has already been reached with SC Freiburg. There, the bike rental company Jobrad will take over as the main sponsor for the coming season.
For Cazoo, on the other hand, it is only in Great Britain further. On the stock exchange, the price of the company, which was once valued at more than eight billion dollars, has fallen by 99 percent. In 2021, Cazoo burned more than £550m. Chesterman, who recently had to step down from his role as CEO, is still committed to the goal of offering car buyers “better choice, better value for money, more transparency, more convenience and more peace of mind”. Chesterman should now take more care of strategy as the head of the supervisory board.