F&I Management & Training

Restructuring specialist Zolfo Cooper has appointed Kevin Coates, Simon Wilson, and Anne O'Keefe, as joint administrators of the group.

Citroen and Mazda

Lythgoe holds Citroen and Mazda franchises in Bolton, Oldham and Rochdale. It also has Fiat in Bolton and a service centre in Wardley.

It has sold cars in the Greater Manchester area for 30 years and, as of November, employed 160 staff.

Lythgoe's management sold the Higher Bridge Street branch in Bolton prior to the appointment of the joint administrators.

The joint administrators are talking to potential buyers and said they were "hopeful of achieving a sale of the remaining sites in the near future". A number of interested parties are said to have already submitted offers for the remaining business.

Wardley site

None of the offers received so far have included the Wardley aftersales site and the 31 employees at there have been made redundant. The joint administrators said they would continue to explore options for this site.

Kevin Coates, of Zolfo Cooper, said: "The priority for the joint administrators is to seek a buyer for the remaining sales sites and we are confident of achieving this in the coming days and weeks.

Investment opportunity

"The remaining franchises represent a strong investment opportunity for other players in this market to expand their businesses and we are seeing significant interest from a number of parties.

"The company's key stakeholders have all been very supportive of our early efforts, which show a great deal of confidence in these franchises.

"We're also very grateful to the dedicated, professional employees of Lythgoe, whose commitment to the business and sale, especially in these difficult times, is an invaluable asset."

DATED: 03.12.09

FEED: MT