Britain’s biggest car park operator NCP has fallen into administration putting almost 700 jobs at risk.
The 95 year old company, one of the UK’s best known corporate names, manages around 340 car parks in major towns and city centres, airports, hospitals and transport hubs and employs 682 people.
Zelf Hussain, Rachael Wilkinson and Toby Banfield of PwC have been appointed as joint administrators “and will now take steps to stabilise the business while assessing options for its future.” The car park sites will continue to stay open for now.
In a statement PwC said NCP’s “performance has deteriorated over a number of years post-COVID-19 as demand for parking has not recovered to historic levels, particularly across city-centre and commuter locations.
“Continued shifts in commuting and customer driving patterns have impacted site occupancy, while the high concentration of long-term, inflexible leases has meant the Company has been unable to reduce costs in line with revenue or to exit loss-making sites, resulting in ongoing trading losses.
“The company now has insufficient cash available to meet its financial obligations and the directors have therefore taken the decision to appoint administrators.”
Zelf Hussain, said: “NCP has faced a challenging trading environment over several years, with changing consumer behaviours impacting volumes, and a high fixed cost-base leading to trading losses. Our priority on appointment is to ensure continuity of service while we undertake a detailed review of the business.
“All sites are open, staff remain in post, and trading continues as normal. We will be engaging with landlords, employees and other stakeholders as we explore all options, including the potential sale of all or part of the business, to secure the best possible outcome for creditors.”
NCP sites in central London include Bloomsbury Square, Brunswick Square, Kings Cross, Harley Street and Marylebone Road. The company name is one of the few in Britain that has become a generic term, often being used to refer to any major city centre car park.
NCP can trace its roots back to 1931 when it was incorporated by Colonel Frederick Lucas. But it only became a major force in London when it was taken over by Central Car Parks, a company founded after the Second World War by Sir Ronald Hobson and Sir Donald Gosling who saw the potential for using bombsites as places to park the growing number of privately owned cars driving into central London.
They invested £200 to convert a single bombsite in Holborn, London into a parking area. By 1959, they acquired NCP from Lucas's widow and adopted the "National" branding to reflect their ambition for country-wide expansion.
It has been owned by Park24, a Tokyo-listed company, since 2017 after being sold by Australia’s Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund.
Latest accounts filed at Companies House show that it made a pre-tax loss of £28.2 million in the year to 30 September 2023 and was £22.5 million in the red the previous year.
