Family-run car dealership Holiways goes into administration (From Durham Times)
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Redundancies expected following car sales collapse
4:19pm Tuesday 7th August 2012 in News
By Nigel Burton
ADMINISTRATION: Holiways Ford dealership in Newton Aycliffe
HOLIWAYS Ford, the family-run business that became one of the region’s best-known car dealerships, has gone into administration.
Many of the firm’s 81 staff will be made redundant.
It also leaves a part of Darlington and County Durham without a dealership selling and servicing vehicles from the country’s biggest manufacturer.
Car sales have collapsed in the wake of the recession and, despite efforts to shore up the business by selling sites in Durham and Hartlepool , Holiways was unable to carry on.
The new and used car retailer, which also ran a servicing and repairs operation from its two sites in Newton Aycliffe and Bishop Auckland , cut thousands of pounds off the price of its cars in recent weeks.
Only days before going into administration, it was offering 11-registration Focus Zetec models for £10,999 – a saving against new of £6,700 and nearly £2,000 less than the guideline trade retail price.
But administrators said that despite selling its Durham and Hartlepool dealerships in recent weeks, the company had incurred significant losses.
Administrator KPMG is expected to sell the Ford dealership’s property and other assets as it winds down the business.
Mark Firmin and Howard Smith, of KPMG, have been appointed joint administrators by FCE Bank.
Although it has been unable to confirm how many of the firm’s 81 jobs are at risk, it said a “high proportion”
will be made redundant in the coming days, with the rest continuing to assist the administrators in the short term.
Mr Firmin, who is head of UK regional restructuring at KPMG, said: “It is unsurprising that during a recession, a relatively rural car retailer has struggled. Despite a restructure, which saw Holiways sell two dealerships in recent weeks, the significant losses incurred by the business through the summer means it simply could not continue to trade.”
Customers who had placed deposits for cars had their money returned earlier this week.
Comments(25)
NO EINSTEIN
says...
7:50pm Tue 7 Aug 12
I just had a full service in Northallerton, with the oil filter, air filter, and fuel filer changing, plus the spark plugs and oil, and it was only £90.
NO EINSTEIN
says...
7:50pm Tue 7 Aug 12
I just had a full service in Northallerton, with the oil filter, air filter, and fuel filer changing, plus the spark plugs and oil, and it was only £90.
pilchrat
says...
8:03pm Tue 7 Aug 12
Dodger27
says...
1:02am Wed 8 Aug 12
stevegg
says...
9:06am Wed 8 Aug 12
_Ice_Q
says...
9:28am Wed 8 Aug 12
A.Smith 71
says...
9:49am Wed 8 Aug 12
The costs that people are talking about are always a subject of debate even when everything was booming and people had plastic money to waste - dealer servicing is and will always be the most expensive route. I always ensure that genuine parts are put on my cars when being serviced and you can still have a full service a lot cheaper than at a dealership.
jewitt
says...
10:51am Wed 8 Aug 12
flowersinthegarden
says...
10:59am Wed 8 Aug 12
holmesc1
says...
12:33pm Wed 8 Aug 12
PJ Chingford
says...
12:57pm Wed 8 Aug 12
maxmum
says...
2:28pm Wed 8 Aug 12
himb11
says...
2:43pm Wed 8 Aug 12
Homshaw1
says...
4:18pm Wed 8 Aug 12
Service staff must be able to find work. Cars still need servicing. Can see how sales staff will have a problem
A.Smith 71
says...
4:48pm Wed 8 Aug 12
himb11 wrote:But in this day and age attitude goes a long way when someone is looking at spending £1,000's on a car, bad attitude of staff only puts people recommending them as a great service!
Thanks for your support maxmum
Good customer service skills are free if you use common sense, who knows how many businesses have failed over the years due to poor staff attitude!?
Still sad to see another local business going to the wall and the loss of those jobs in the current climate.
mark.wilkinson
says...
5:47pm Wed 8 Aug 12
_Ice_Q wrote:Manufacturers warranties are not worth the paper they're written on. Anyone who buys into this expensive con when buying a car is a very naive muppet indeed.
No Enstein, obviously you don't have a manufacturers warranty on your vehicle. Prices like those mean non geniune parts were used thus warranty is void. You are also using parts that in the event of failure you will find very hard to get warrantable repairs done by the servicing garage or by the company manufacturing the service items. This is why you pay a bit extra for servicing at a main dealer - Peace of mind that your vehicle is in good hands is worth a little extra.
Parts guy
says...
6:20pm Wed 8 Aug 12
_Ice_Q wrote:_Ice_Q Due to block exemption laws as long as the Garage doing the repairs/service is V.A.T registered and the parts used are of equal specification to dealer supplied parts then your warranty will not be effected...
No Enstein, obviously you don't have a manufacturers warranty on your vehicle. Prices like those mean non geniune parts were used thus warranty is void. You are also using parts that in the event of failure you will find very hard to get warrantable repairs done by the servicing garage or by the company manufacturing the service items. This is why you pay a bit extra for servicing at a main dealer - Peace of mind that your vehicle is in good hands is worth a little extra.
Middleton road mentioned here and many more local garages use original equipment spec parts and all come with a 12 month warranty for parts and labour exactly the same as dealer parts....in fact many aftermarket parts are made in the same factories as the dealer parts and sold in after market supplier boxes....mann and hummell and ufi are both main dealer filtration suppliers and aftermarket suppliers!!!
You pay extra for the labour rate more than the parts....take a look at the showroom that the dealer has to maintain and keep upto manufacturer standards and all the non profit making staff that have to be carried this is why the price is higher....
Ironing board
says...
9:58pm Wed 8 Aug 12
A.Smith 71
says...
8:44am Thu 9 Aug 12
Ironing board wrote:And was all this paid for through the business and can you prove it?
With regard to the staff at Holiways I've always found them great .However when you hear the management took themselves off to watch the Olympics with Hotels on the firm,buying GT40 cars and generally sucking the life out of any profit made by the staff What do you expect !,,,
Otherwise this is speculation and has no weight because surely the management can do with their own money whatever they want?
If they have GT40's paid for through the business then they are assets so will be sold separate or as a job lot with the business by the administrators.
jewitt
says...
3:04pm Thu 9 Aug 12
http://uk.finance.ya
hoo.com/news/global-
slump-sinks-britains
-oldest-131203092.ht
ml
spragger
says...
6:42pm Thu 9 Aug 12
With DCC however crap it becomes it will still pick your pocket & give you a naff service
Parts guy
says...
6:57pm Thu 9 Aug 12
NO EINSTEIN
says...
7:52pm Thu 9 Aug 12
_Ice_Q wrote:_Ice_Q Due to block exemption laws as long as the Garage doing the repairs/service is V.A.T registered and the parts used are of equal specification to dealer supplied parts then your warranty will not be effected...
No Enstein, obviously you don't have a manufacturers warranty on your vehicle. Prices like those mean non geniune parts were used thus warranty is void. You are also using parts that in the event of failure you will find very hard to get warrantable repairs done by the servicing garage or by the company manufacturing the service items. This is why you pay a bit extra for servicing at a main dealer - Peace of mind that your vehicle is in good hands is worth a little extra.
In your face _ICE_ Q, SORRY
spanky19592012
says...
1:32pm Sun 12 Aug 12
having two dealerships within a short distance did not work as you were affecting each other branch.
i used to work at elliotts and when they closed the md of holiways was wanting to jump right into the area to get the rich pickings of a successfull long established family owned dealership successfull dealership
GeordieB says...
5:13pm Tue 7 Aug 12