Coronavirus: Arlington Automotive Group calls in administrators

Administrators have been brought in at a car parts maker as the coronavirus outbreak led to a drop in new cars being bought.

Arlington Automotive Group employs about 600 people in sites in Coventry, Newton Aycliffe, Reading, Stourport, Birmingham and Manchester. Its Derby site has already started closing.

The company supplies car makers such as JLR, Ford and Nissan among others.

Some redundancies have been made but the company has not confirmed how many.

Allan Graham, joint administrator, said: "The financial issues faced by the group have been compounded by coronavirus.

"New car registrations have fallen dramatically and the complexity of supply chains in the sector have led to a sudden halt to manufacturing."

The joint administrators were appointed on 7 May, to the group, which is a subsidiary of the Arlington International Group which has operations in France, Germany, Brazil, USA and China.

A statement said the move was "against a backdrop of wider changes in the automotive sector, including Brexit uncertainty around tariffs, which led to a number of manufacturers announcing the transfer of production away from the UK".

Part of Arlington Automotive's work is manufacturing bespoke thermostats for vehicles and the manufacture and assembly of engineered vehicle systems.

Arlington International chief executive Mark Franckel said it had "longstanding and deep-rooted relationships with its customers" and was "confident" the restructured business would be a "key supplier".

Administrators said they were working with stakeholders to review options.