Need a job? Carvana is looking to hire more than 1,000 employees in Rocklin

Carvana says it plans to hire more than 1,000 workers in the coming 12-months at its soon-to-open car inspection facility in Rocklin, including 150 at a two-day job fair starting on Wednesday.

“We hired roughly 100 associates, looking to hire 1,000+ over the next year,” said spokeswoman Veronica Cardenas in an email.

The job fair will occur from 8 a.m to 7 p.m on both Sept. 21 and Sept. 22 at the facility at 3445 Cincinnati Avenue, said Cardenas.

The station is scheduled to begin operations in the next few days. Cardenas said construction will be finished this week.

$20 an hour and up

She said administrative staff, inventory workers and auto body and paint technicians will be hired at the facility. Pay will be between $20 and $34 an hour.

If Carvana can meet its ambitious expansion plans, it will be a major job boost for the Sacramento region. However, the fast-growing publicly traded used car platform also faces financial challenges.

Profits have disappeared for Carvana as used cars sales and prices have declined and interest rates have gone up amid a recessionary environment. Some stock analysts have said the company could face bankruptcy if it doesn’t soon find profits.

The financial doubters haven’t stopped the online used car company’s expansion to building new facilities. Carvana was founded in 2012 in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe.

Carvana paid more than $16 million for the land to construct the 190,000 square foot Rocklin facility.

Only such site in California

Cardenas said the Sacramento region was picked for Carvana’s first inspection station in California, and third in the West, because of its central location serving California and the Pacific Northwest.

She said the Rocklin inspection center was needed “due to rapid inventory growth” and that the center would help the company “control delivery times.”

Carvana’s website said it takes an average of 18 days for a pre-ordered vehicle to go through the reconditioning process and become available for purchase.

Carvana’s inspection stations recondition the used cars the company buys. Workers first inspect and then refurbishing the vehicles, before photographing them and putting the images on the company’s website.

Cardenas said that 300 cars will be able to inspected, reconditioned and photographed at the Rocklin facility and listed on the company’s website within a 24-hour period.

She said the facility will be able to hold 10,000 cars.

Carvana’s other two West coast inspection facilities are in Tolleson, Arizona, near Phoenix, and in Tooele, Utah. near Salt Lake City.

Stock down, prospects up?

Carvana’s stock, which closed Monday night at $30.97, has lost around 90% of its value in the last year.

But one stock analyst suggested in a Sept. 12 report that the price fall makes it a good time to purchase the stock.

Piper Sandler’s Alexander Potter wrote. “We know that rising interest rates are a risk, and we know that bankruptcy is a real possibility.”

But Anderson said that Carvana’s stock price was undervalued and that the used car company’s percentage of the market, now valued at 1%, could rise to 8% by 2035.

“Carvana shares “could easily continue falling,” he said, “ut with so much potential upside, we think investors should consider owning at least some CVNA.”

This story was originally published September 21, 2022 at 5:00 AM.