Online car retailer Cazoo has posted losses of £704m in its financial results, an increase of 30% from the year before, despite a sharp boost in revenue.
Founded in 2018, Cazoo is an online platform that sells second-hand vehicles that are delivered to customers’ homes.
The London-based vehicle seller grew revenues by 91% to £1.25bn, selling 85,035 cars, a 72% increase from 2021.
Despite the revenue surge, Cazoo was unable to turn a profit in a year in which the New York-listed firm cut 1,500 jobs in two rounds of layoffs in June and September.
The layoffs were part of the company’s cost-cutting measures in pursuit of profitability. Cazoo founder Alex Chesterman, who is stepping down as CEO next month, said that he was “incredibly proud” of the results despite the widened losses.
“During the year we made a number of important strategic decisions to change gear from fast-paced growth to focus on improving our unit economics in the near term,” said Chesterman.
“I am very encouraged by the pace of the team’s delivery in rightsizing our headcount and operational footprint which we have now completed in order to drive higher margins going forward.”
Cazoo has been scaling back its European presence to focus solely on the UK market. The company sold off its German-based subsidiary Cluno as per the European withdrawal strategy.