Car dealership shuts with loss of 40 jobs

Jul 31 2008 by Alex Turner, Liverpool Daily Post

MERSEYSIDE car dealership Ryders Autoservice has gone into administration, with the loss of more than 40 jobs.

The family-run group, which has been in Bootle for more than 75 years, had three car dealerships and a winch division.

It ran a Mitsubishi dealership at Bootle alongside a Mazda service centre. Ryders Winch International, which distributed battery and hydraulic powered vehicle mount winches, was also based at the Bootle site.

In addition it ran a Ford dealership in Crosby, which it claimed as the oldest franchised dealership in Liverpool.

However its Crosby site closed earlier this summer after Ford ended the contract and now its Bootle site has also been closed.

Ryders Autoservice has appointed Matthew Dunham, business restructuring partner at BDO Stoy Hayward, as administrator.

“Retailing new and used cars has become increasingly competitive,” said Mr Dunham. “As a result, firms like the Ryder Group are experiencing falling volumes, rising costs and price deflation.

“Unfortunately, we have had to make the majority of staff redundant. We remain hopeful of securing a sale of the site in Bootle as well as the Crosby site.”

Ryders Autoservice’s accounts to March 2008 were overdue at Companies House but its previous year’s figures showed the difficulties the company faced.

Gross profit fell 40% from the previous year and, after deducting administrative expenses and interest payments, it recorded a loss of £154,000.

Servicing its debt had become increasingly costly, with repayments on bank and other loans increasing by one-third to £105,000.

It also had to repay £1.3m to the bank before this March with a further £850,000 due to other creditors.

At the date of the accounts, Ryders Autoservice was also holding significantly more stock than a year earlier.

The Ryders business grew out of a Bootle milk and ice-cream business, branching into distributing and servicing vehicles in the early 1930s.

alex.turner