More than 1,200 staff made redundant as Unipart Automotive enters administration

ADMINISTRATORS from KPMG have sold part of the Unipart Automotive business to Andrew Page and The Parts Alliance saving 361 jobs – but 1,244 members of staff have been made redundant.

Rumours that Birmingham-based Unipart Automotive was about to enter administration have been circulating for weeks and were confirmed this morning.

The firm is one of the UK’s largest suppliers of second hand car parts, workshop consumables and garage equipment. It operates a network of 180 branches and distribution hubs trading under the Unipart Automotive, Partco Autoparts, and Express Factors brands. It employed 1,813 people.

A total of 208 members of staff have been retained to assist the administrators, Mark Orton, Will Wright and Jonny Marston from KPMG’s Birmingham office.

Immediately upon appointment, the administrators sold part of the business in a joint deal to Andrew Page, one of the UK’s largest distributors of car parts, workshop equipment, tools and diagnostics, and The Parts Alliance.

The deal will see Andrew Page acquire 21 branches and The Parts Alliance a total of 12.

The remainder of the Unipart Automotive business has ceased to trade.

Mark Orton, partner at KPMG and joint administrator, said: “Despite intensive efforts over recent weeks, a sale of the whole Unipart Automotive business could not be reached, and a buyer could only be found for 33 of the sites on a going concern basis.

“Unfortunately, the business had been experiencing financial stress for a number of years, so the level of cash and further operational restructuring required to rescue a more substantial part of the business posed too much risk for most interested parties. 

“Our team of employment specialists will be supporting all staff on completing redundancy forms and putting them in touch with job seeker services. We will now be reviewing what options are available for the remainder of the business, such as selling leasehold interests.”

The company also directly supports over 700 independent, owner-operated garages through its Unipart Car Care Centre programme, in addition to having 19 franchisees. These companies fall outside of the administration and will continue to operate as normal.

In the Midlands the sites in Walsall, Shrewsbury, Stafford and Chesterfield have been sold to Andrew Page and The Parts Alliance. 
 
The sites in Birmingham, Birmingham South, Brierley Hill, Burton-on-Trent, Coventry, Derby, Head Office – Birmingham, Hereford, Hub East Midlands, Hub West Midlands, Kidderminster, Leicester, Loughborough, Mansfield, Newark, Nottingham, Redditch, Stoke, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton and Worcester will close. 

Peter Sephton, chief executive of Solihull-based The Parts Alliance, said: “This is a real opportunity for us to safeguard and integrate more industry talent with some of the excellent staff from Unipart Automotive who will be joining us.

“As a service-centric organisation, the quality and calibre of our teams is a vital ingredient in our success, along with best-in-market products, systems and practices. This further increases our service levels to our major national and independent customers.
 
“It is, of course, deeply sad when businesses enter administration as jobs are inevitably lost, but we are pleased that through this deal we will be saving over 300 jobs and bringing these into the fold.”

John Neill, chairman and chief executive of the Unipart Group, said: “We are saddened by the Unipart Automotive situation and even though we sold control of this business years ago, we are concerned for the future of the employees.

“We have recently been able to work constructively and collaboratively with Andrew Page and are pleased that they have been able to save 33 branches and around 350 jobs. They have a strong reputation for selling high quality products and brands and we look forward to making available a supply of high quality Unipart branded products to Britain’s car owners and Unipart Car Care Centres.”

The Unipart Automotive distribution business, previously known as Partco, was sold by Unipart Group in 2011. Unipart Group retained a passive equity stake, and a condition of the sale was that Unipart Group exercised no control over the business.