With half the available inventory versus a year ago, Carvana was still able to grow unit sales by double digits in the first quarter.
The online used-vehicle retailer doubled its revenue for the period, while reporting another loss, albeit a narrower one.
The company narrowed its net loss to $82 million for the period, compared with a loss of $184 million in the first quarter of 2020.
Revenue doubled to $2.25 billion. Gross profit more than doubled to $338 million.
Carvana has been dealing with sale-ready inventory constraints since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The company’s average available inventory for sale was down 27 percent on average in the first quarter, when compared with the fourth quarter of 2020, the company said in a letter to investors Thursday.
“Demand continues to outpace our ability to fulfill it, and we are taking many steps to ramp up production capacity in the near-term to support accelerated growth in 2021,” Carvana said in the letter.
Carvana opened its 12th inspection and reconditioning center, near Birmingham, Ala., in the period. The company plans to open one more such facility this year, followed by another eight in 2022.
The company also added team members at its existing reconditioning facilities during the first quarter, and improved its weekly vehicle production by 21 percent in volume over the fourth quarter of 2020. The improvement has continued and so far, in the second quarter of this year, Carvana’s weekly production rate was 51 percent higher than in the fourth quarter of last year.
In the first quarter, Carvana’s total retail unit sales grew 76 percent to 92,457.
The company’s gross profit per unit was $3,656, up from $2,640 in the year-ago period.
Its retail gross profit per unit was $1,211, compared with $1,581 in the year-earlier period, and with $1,265 in the fourth quarter of 2020. The decline in retail gross profit per unit was because of cost related to ramping up its reconditioning as well as a flat ratio of consumer-sourced vehicles.
Carvana’s wholesale gross profit per unit was $227 in the first quarter of this year, compared with $23 in the year-ago period and with $108 in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Carvana was in 272 markets across the U.S. at quarter’s end, covering roughly 74.5 percent of the country’s population. It’s since added 16 additional markets, giving it 77.4 percent coverage.
“First quarter results were exceptional across all key metrics,” CEO Ernie Garcia said in a release. “We delivered triple-digit revenue growth and record retail unit sales while simultaneously increasing GPU and driving operating leverage.”
Carvana’s stock closed Thursday down 6 percent to $263.45.
