CAZOO has completed the purchase of SMH Fleet Solutions in a deal worth around £70 million. The acquisition is the latest to be completed in a considerable expansion drive from the online car retail specialist, which includes a new subscription service for new cars.
Doubling Cazoo’s logistics division with the addition of 11 new sites, the deal looks set to dramatically expand current operations, as well as offering scalability in line with future growth.
Once fully integrated, Cazoo will have the capacity to recondition hundreds of thousands of vehicles, as well as the required logistics expertise to deliver them and storage space for tens of thousands of models.
Established in 2003, SMH Fleet Solutions is one of the UK’s largest vehicle preparation, logistics, and storage businesses, with a team of more than 500 personnel. The business processes more than 70,000 vehicles per year across sites in locations such as Bedford, Worcester, and St Helens.
Cazoo was founded in 2018 and launched two years ago in the UK. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange in August 2021, the company has already sold more than 35,000 cars in the country, and is gearing up to launch in Europe following its acquisition of Cluno – a German firm.
As well as SMH and Cluno, Cazoo has also added data insight experts Cazana to its portfolio, only weeks earlier than this latest deal. It allows the online car portal access to real-time valuations, pricing trends, analysis, stock management systems, and tools as it rapidly grows the business.
Cazoo founder and CEO Alex Chesterman said: “Given strong customer 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. I look forward to welcoming the SMH team to Cazoo.
Tim Hudson, CEO at SMH Fleet Solutions, said: “We have been building one of the leading teams in vehicle preparation and logistics in the UK and are very well placed to support the remarkable pace of growth at Cazoo and help it deliver on its mission of providing the best car buying and selling experience in the UK.”
