Lack of stock forces used-car dealer Peter Vardy to close two sites

Dealer group Peter Vardy will close two of its used-car supermarkets due to the lack of available stock, it has announced. The group will close the Dundee and Glasgow branches of its Peter Vardy Carz supermarket chain, which has nine branches across Scotland. “The lack of a used car supply for car supermarkets has driven this decision,” CEO Peter Vardy said in a statement. The amount of available used car stock has shrunk in the past months as the sharp reductions in new-car sales caused by Covid-related shutdowns and the subsequent parts supply shortages has passed through the market. Peter Vardy said that the initial shutdowns has now “resulted in a drastic shortage of sub three-year-old cars, the stock required for the financial viability of used car supermarkets”. Data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders shows the available numbers of used cars aged between zero and four years has shrunk from 1.87 million last year to 1.55 million this year, or 17%. Meanwhile, competition for used cars has “intensified”, the chairman of used-car supermarket chain Motorpoint, John Walden, said in a recent company report. “New-car franchises have shifted more attention to used cars to cover for lower new-car production and new online-only sales models have emerged,” Walden wrote in the company’s recently published annual report. “The constrained used-car supply has caused all players to compete more aggressively for stock from all sources." Motorpoint said it had “paused its new store roll-out programme” in response to the tricky market conditions, the company said in its report. The pause comes after it opened its 20th outlet in May. Volatility in the used-car market saw prices sharply rise in 2021 as car buyers reacted to the lack of new models to buy used instead. Car dealers took advantage of the swing to focus on used customers, increasing profits, but driving up competition for a dwindling number of used cars. Profits for those who can source used cars remain high. Dealer group Pendragon said used-car sales in the first half of the year up were up 7.2%, with its gross profit per car “remaining well above historic levels” at £1400. Dedicated used-car online sites such as Cazoo also generated greater interest during the pandemic, but the company has recently had to radically dial back ambitious plans after it failed to secure continued investment. Cazoo said it delivered 9124 cars in the second quarter of this year, down 42% from the same period last year.

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Lack of stock forces used-car dealer Peter Vardy to close two sites

Dundee and Glasgow branches of Peter Vardy Carz supermarket chain are part of nine across the country

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Lack of stock forces used-car dealer Peter Vardy to close two sites

Dundee and Glasgow branches of Peter Vardy Carz supermarket chain are part of nine across the country

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