Estar Truck and Van have acquired certain parts of the Roanza Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicle franchised dealership goup and its subsidiary Premier Vehicle Rental Limited – saving 340 jobs.
Sarah O’Toole and Jason Bell of Grant Thornton UK LLP in Manchester were appointed joint administrators to Roanza Limited and Premier Vehicle Rental yesterday (September 8) and revealed that the sales had been completed later the same day.
Warrington-based Roanza had operated Mercedes-Benz Vans dealerships – in Deeside, Doncaster, Liverpool (x2), Manchester, Stoke, Trafford Park and Warrington – with subsidiary Premier Vehicle Rental Limited employing seven members of staff.
Three sites closures and 80 redundancies are now on the cards at the business following the acquisition by the recently-established buyer, which is also Warrington-based, however.
A statement issued by Grant Thornton said: “Having secured the required franchises with Mercedes, Estar will continue to operate a range of services across the five sites at Trafford Park, Liverpool, Warrington, Deeside and Stoke-on-Trent.
“The sale did not include the company’s operations at sites in Doncaster, East Manchester and one of the two sites previously operated in Liverpool, which will all cease to trade with immediate effect.
“Around 80 positions have been made redundant at these three sites, around half of which were already furloughed.”
Premier Vehicle Rentals Limited operated a separate van and truck leasing business, with a fleet of over 900 vehicle which was not included in the sale.
The rental company employed seven staff, a number of whom have been retained by the company in administration to assist with the realisation of assets for the benefit of the creditors.
Sarah O’Toole, advisory partner at Grant Thornton UK LLP said that whilst it is always difficult when any elements of a business cease to trade and redundancies need to be made, she was “delighted” to have secured the sale of operations and the five larger sites and the continued employment of the majority of staff.
Grant Thornton said that the commercial vehicle sector had been in contraction for some time, and added that Roanza’s 2019 losses had been exacerbated during the COVID-19 lockdown.