Cazoo remains acquisitive after snapping up logistics business SMH Fleet Solutions (SMH) for £70 million.
The online car retailer has been stacking up acquisitions since the start of September, with its £25m purchase of Cazana after listing on the New York Stock Exchange at the end of August.
Cazoo took control of its own refurbishment and logistics operations in the UK after acquiring four-site Smart Fleet Solutions earlier this year. The business has also acquired subscription businesses Drover and Cluno to add to its expanding portfolio of services.
Established in 2003, SMH has a team of over 500 staff currently processing more than 70,000 vehicle refurbishments annually from six vehicle preparation sites across 136 acres in Bedford, Gloucester, Throckmorton, Worcester and St Helens.
SMH also carries out over 150,000 vehicle movements per year with a team of over 300 logistics specialists as well as operating an online wholesale platform for used cars.
Cazoo said SMH will double its overall vehicle reconditioning, logistics and storage capabilities in the UK with 11 total sites across more than 265 acres.
The capacity to store and recondition “hundreds of thousands of cars”
Once fully integrated, Cazoo said it will have the capacity to recondition and deliver “hundreds of thousands of cars per year and store tens of thousands of cars”.
Alex Chesterman OBE, founder and chief executive of Cazoo, said: “Given strong consumer demand, the only real constraint to our future growth is ensuring that we have adequate capability to recondition, store and deliver enough cars to keep up.
“By acquiring SMH, this helps solve that and de-risks our future growth by immediately doubling our number of vehicle preparation sites and significantly enhancing our team of vehicle preparation and logistics staff.”
Cazoo said it has already sold over 35,000 cars in the UK since its launch less than two years ago.
The company has recently launched an all-inclusive monthly subscription service for new cars as well as now buying used cars directly from consumers in the UK.
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.