MORE than 140 jobs could be at risk at the Cazoo vehicle repair and preparation site in Westbury.
The company is consulting more than 3,000 staff on the closure of some of its premises across the UK, following the closure of its European operations last year.
The move could affect up to 150 people employed at its vehicle preparation centre in Stephenson Road on the Northacre Industrial Estate.
Up to 15 of Cazoo’s 22 customer centres – opened across the UK over the last few years – are scheduled to close if the proposals go ahead.
The number of Cazoo preparation centres could also be reduced to three. It is not yet clear whether the Westbury site will be one of those to stay open.
Staff in Cazoo’s information technology team and London head office are also under the threat of redundancy.
Cazoo’s chief customer officer Darren Bentley told staff on Wednesday (January 18): “We’re targeting sales volume this year of 40,000 units, which is a step backwards from the 60,000 that we did in 2022.
“However, the challenge within that is that our current infrastructure and headcount is set up to support a significantly higher level of retail sales, in the region of 200,000, and therefore the business needs to restructure the business and to continue to align with that revised sales volume.
“That’s necessary in order to get to the cost savings, and the business efficiencies that we’re looking for from across all the teams in the business.
“The proposals that we have announced today cover reducing the number of vehicle preparation centres down to three, we’re proposing to reduce the number of CCCs [Cazoo Customer Centres] in which we operate, and closing our Lisbon office, and reducing our overall technology team and reconsolidating that to London, along with reducing a number of our head office support functions.
“The current proposal is to retain Birmingham, Bristol, Chertsey, Lakeside, Manchester, Northampton and Wembley, but we would close all other CCCs outside of those areas, along with our customer support presence in Leeds. All of our in-house customer support will be moving back to Southampton.
“Because the company is considering these proposals, unfortunately today’s announcement is to advise you that your roles are therefore impacted and at risk of redundancy.”
A consultancy period will now take place over the next two weeks. Mr Bentley said nothing has yet been decided.
Cazoo has been contacted for comment.
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