Staffs job losses fear as Klarius heads for administration
KLARIUS, the fast-growing automotive parts business, is poised to enter administration, putting more than 1,000 jobs at risk.
The company filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators at the High Court in Manchester at the end of January, and it is understood KPMG has been lined up to take on the job.
The court document, which protects the firm from creditor action, means it will go into administration if a solution cannot be found.
The company, headquartered at Manchester Airport, is billed as the largest European manufacturer of aftermarket car parts and makes 90,000 parts from five manufacturing plants – three in the UK, one in Spain and one in Germany – which employ 1,200 people.
Of these around 250 work at its exhaust plant and European distribution centre at Cheadle in North Staffordshire.
The group was formed in 2007 when chairman Tony Wilson bought the European division of US-based exhausts maker Arvin Meritor in a deal which was understood to have been worth £12m.
In 2010 it acquired Leicester-based Quinton Hazell from US-based Affinia to increase it product range make efficiencies in terms of operations and deliveries.
In an interview with the trade publication CAT in September, Mr Wilson said the business had been affected by competition from manufacturers in the Far East. He had also seen a knock-on from people using their cars less due to higher fuel prices, but he was optimistic about the firm’s prospects.
The group has not filed annual accounts at Companies House since October 2011 when figures for 2010 showed a pre-tax profit of £23.3m on sales of £202m.
At the time it had a £13m facility with Burdale, the asset finance arm of the Bank of Ireland which was sold to Wells Fargo in 2011. Klarius refinanced with London-based Cable Finance in October.
Last year Klarius was ranked sixth in a list of privately-owned manufacturers with the biggest international sales published in The Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 report.
The Klarius management team was unavailable for comment.
