Over 300 jobs have been saved and 80 lost at a North West commercial vehicle firm after it was bought out of administration.
Administrators from Grant Thornton in Manchester were appointed to Roanza Ltd and its subsidiary Premier Vehicle Rental Ltd on Tuesday, with certain parts of the business sold to Estar Truck and Van Limited, with 340 jobs transferred.
Headquartered in Warrington, Roanza operated full service Mercedes Van and Truck dealerships under franchise from eight sites, predominately in the North West.
Having secured the required franchises with Mercedes, Estar will continue to operate a range of services across the five sites at Trafford Park, Liverpool, Warrington, Deeside and Stoke-on-Trent.
According to administrators, the sale did not include the company’s operations at sites in Doncaster, East Manchester and one of the two sites previously operated in Liverpool, which will all cease to trade with immediate effect.
Around 80 positions have been made redundant at these three sites, around half of which were already furloughed.
Sarah O’Toole and Jason Bell of Grant Thornton UK LLP in Manchester were appointed joint administrators.
Ms O'Toole said: “Whilst it is always difficult when any elements of a business cease to trade and redundancies need to be made, we are delighted to have secured the sale of operations and the five larger sites and the continued employment of the majority of staff.”
The commercial vehicle sector has been in contraction for some time, and the company suffered losses in 2019, which were exacerbated during lockdown.
That's after it recorded revenues of £180m as recently as 2018.
Premier Vehicle Rentals Limited operates a separate van and truck leasing business, with a fleet of over 900 vehicles, which was not included in the sale.
The rental company employed seven staff, a number of whom have been retained by the company in administration to assist with the realisation of assets for the benefit of the creditors.
