Stellantis-owned used car supermarket group opens Hull refurb centre

Stellantis-owned Aramis Group has bucked the trend for used car preparation centre closures with the opening of a new 15,000 square metre facility in Hull.

The company behind CarSupermarket.com (previously Motor Depot) has invested around £2.23 million in the new operation which could create 100 jobs and process around 25,000 vehicles per year when fully operational.

Aramis’ existing refurb centre in Goole currently has capacity to process 13,000 vehicles annually.

The new Hull site represents and acceleration of its developments across the region.

In a joint statement, Aramis Group founders Nicolas Chartier and Guillaume Paoli said: “Following the opening of the Antwerp refurbishing centre in November 2021, the Group’s first site in Belgium, then the Nemours facility in June 2022, its second site in France, Aramis Group is delighted to inaugurate its second site in the UK.

“Thank you to all our teams for this great achievement, and particularly Matt Barrick, who has been with CarSupermarket.com for more than 15 years and was recently appointed as CEO of our UK operations, and who has been a driving force behind its development.”

The statement added: “Located in Hull, Yorkshire, the region where CarSupermarket.com was founded more than 20 years ago and where the brand has a strong leading position locally, this new centre will enable us to triple our vehicle processing capacity in the UK over time, helping consolidate our position in this country and supporting our objectives for growth.”

Aramis Group claims to be Europe’s largest market for used vehicle sales, with over 6.5 million units sold across six countries in 2022.

Its CarSupermarket.com operation featured 6th in the AM100 2022 report’s ID50 ranking of the UK’s largest independent dealers.

Back in November Aramis Group acquired Cazoo’s Italian operations as the online retailer continued its withdrawal from Europe to focus on cost savings and the UK market.

Aramis group’s development of a new used car refurb operation comes after it emerged that Cazoo’s consolidation plans were likely to result in just just three of its preparation centres – in Portbury, Cold Meece and Bedford – remaining open, with Westbury, Long Bennington, Livingston and Gloucester all earmarked for closure.

Last month AM also reported that BCA has entered into consultation with staff over business restructure plans that involve the closure of its vehicle preparation centre closure at Upper Heyford.

Aramis said that operations at its new Hull centre would ramp-up in-line with the level of demand, adding: “As soon as the economic context improves, CarSupermarket.com will be able to strongly re-accelerate and relaunch its growth, in a structurally deep and attractive UK market.”

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• Source: https://www.am-online.com/news/used-cars/2023/02/07/stellantis-owned-used-car-supermarket-opens-hull-refurb-centre