Car retailer to axe 250 jobs as supply of used vehicles stalls

The new owner of Nottingham car retailer Pendragon has unveiled plans to axe hundreds of jobs after a dramatic fall in the supply of used cars.

US-based Lithia, which bought Pendragon at the end of last year in a £397m deal, alerted staff on Tuesday (April 23) of plans to close CarStore, according to reports in the Financial Times.

The move will see around 250 jobs go – or one 20 staff, said the FT, mostly from closing 16 CarStore sites.

Dozens of backroom staff are also facing the threat of redundancy. Lithia, which also owns the Jardine Motors dealership business, has recognised an overlap of roles as it looks to integrate the two UK businesses.

A spokesperson for the firm said: “[Lithia is] is going into consultation with a number of our colleagues around potential redundancies.

“We will be closing nine CarStore sites and seven CarStore pods this quarter in order to focus on Evans Halshaw and Stratstone.

“Four CarStore sites will be retained and re-franchised, expanding our retail operations with three existing carmakers, while seven remaining CarStore pods will become Evans Halshaw Direct sites.”

CarStore has sites across the East Midlands and nationwide.