Shift Technologies Inc. reported record revenue and vehicle sales in the fourth quarter as it continued to dig itself out of an inventory hole brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
The online used-vehicle retailer was more selective in inventory acquisition at the onset of the outbreak last spring. It also furloughed some of its reconditioning staff, relying more heavily on third parties to get its vehicles sale-ready.
This led to an inventory gap when used-vehicle demand began to surge later in the spring and into the summer.
In the fourth quarter, Shift said, the company was able to "steadily and dramatically" reduce its use of third-party reconditioning, and by January, it was back at pre-COVID levels of having just 15 percent of its vehicles processed by outside parties.
In October, Shift was processing about 250 vehicles per week in-house, and it improved that number to more than 500 vehicles by the middle of the first quarter.
The c…