Dealers trade on, at a price
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Cashflow problems have driven Wellingborough, Northants-based Renault truck dealer Harborne Group into administrative receivership.
The crisis has affected the firm's warehousing and rental and contract hire operations as well as the dealership, says receiver Richard Rees of PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Negotiations are taking place with a number of interested parties," he states.
Meanwhile the group is continuing trading. "Renault is being supportive," Rees comments.
Other activities run from the Wellingborough location—Magnum Tyres, for example—are not affected by the receivership.
Last year Harborne asked Renault to downgrade it from main dealership to service and parts only status. "Harborne has a big site in Wellingborough, but it wasn't moving big volumes," says a Renault spokesman.
Renault Trucks Chiltern took over responsibility for sales, and three other outlets are now providing service and parts support in the territory, as well as Harborne. They are Peterborough Engineering in Peterborough, City Trucks in Milton Keynes, and Gerald White Group, which is just outside Northampton, near J16 of the Ml, and not all that far from Wellingborough.
• In the Midlands, S Jones' ERF dealership has yet to find a purchaser, but is still trading, says receiver KPMG. S Jones Industrial Holdings went into administrative receivership in March, and KPMG was appointed by Lloyds Bank.
"There are no plans for a management buy-out at the dealership,"says a KPMG spokesman. "However, it is still trading as normal and ERF is being very helpful."