Major car dealer to open FOUR sites as online salesroom opens first physical showroom – will one be coming to you?
A MAJOR online car retailer is to open four showrooms as the company shows off its first ever physical dealerships.
Cinch is launching used car dealerships across the UK, with the first one on a former rival Cazoo’s site.
Northampton residents looking for a second-hand car are in luck as the first showroom opens next week there.
Others will follow suit in Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester this month, with more planned later this year.
Cinch is owned by Constellation Automotive Group and established four years ago.
They say they will offer a wide range of hand-selected used cars from its stock of over a whopping 5,000 vehicles.
The successful online company has sold more than 200,000 cars previously – solely from the web.
Robert Bridge, Cinch’s chief customer officer, said: “We’re now in our fourth successful year of growth in our online business, so it’s the perfect time to deliver an omnichannel experience and open our first physical stores to reach even more UK car buyers with our faff-free approach.
“Thousands of drivers across the UK have bought from us already using our fully online sales model.
“Now we’re looking forward to meeting some of those existing customers in person and welcoming new customers through our doors for the first time.”
Customers will be able to test-drive cars and get help from the team in the store.
Those who visit the store and want to buy a car will complete the purchase on the website.
It comes as major car dealership Cazoo collapsed into bankruptcy a couple of months ago.
Cazoo was founded in 2018 by Alex Chesterman, who had previously created the successful property site Zoopla.
By 2020, it was a household name, particularly among sports fans, with sponsorships ranging from Aston Villa to the England cricket team.
At its height, the business employed 4,500 people and was valued at over £5 billion.
However, several years of heavy losses saw Mr Chesterton resign in 2022 and staff numbers scaled back by over half.
Administrators were called in back in May, accompanied by a further round of 720 job cuts.
There was some hope of a recovery deal for parts of the business, with Motors.co.uk linked to the company in reports in June.