Deal saves jobs at ailing Klarius

MORE than 230 jobs have been saved at stricken Manchester-based automotive parts group Klarius, administrators KPMG said today.

The group, which had its headquarters at Manchester Airport, had a turnover of £200m in 2011, but has been hit by a downturn in the automotive parts sector, and appointed administrators on Wednesday.
 
Manchester-based KPMG partners Paul Flint and David Costley-Wood were appointed to Klarius’ main trading business automotive parts manufacturer and distributor Quinton Hazell Automotive and the parent company, Klarius Group.

A former Klarius management team has set up a new business, called Klarius Products, which has acquired the Klarius emissions business based at Cheadle, Staffordshire, whihc will save 234 jobs.

 The deal will formally complete later today, KPMG said.

In addition, the intellectual property rights relating to the QH business was sold separately to Tetrosyl I-Tec Limited, part of Bury-based Tetrosyl Limited.

KPMG said 42 redundancies had been made at Quinton Hazell Automotive at its QH distribution division in Hinckley, Leicestershire, which will cease to operate.

Further redundancies are expected at other sites around the group  – nine out of 10 staff at the Manchester airport HQ have been made redundant.

Klarius Group operates three subsidiaries in Europe; QH France SAS, QH Deutschland and QH España. These companies are separate legal entities and have not been included in the UK administration.

Paul Flint, joint Administrator and associate artner at KPMG, commented: “We are pleased to announce the sale of the Cheadle site – saving 234 jobs. Despite marketing the remaining divisions for sale, we were unable to find a buyer and have taken the difficult decision to wind them down.

“Prolonged challenging trading conditions in the automotive parts sector impacted Quinton Hazell’s performance. This created cashflow pressures and affected Quinton Hazell’s ability to trade as a going concern.”

KPMG is assisting affected staff to claim redundancy payments.

A team from Squire Sanders led by Partner Susan Kelly provided legal advice to the administrators.

The group has not filed accounts since October 2011. At that time it reported a profit of £23.3m on sales of £202m. The group refinanced in October 2012 as London-based Cable Finance replaced Burdale as the main lender.