Paul Flint and David Costley-Wood from KPMG were appointed joint administrators yesterday and made the majority of staff at its customer’s service facility in Leicestershire (which will cease to operate) and Manchester Airport Headquarters redundant.

Further redundancies are expected at other sites around the group.

Following their appointment, Klarius set up a new company called Klarius Products, and sold its emissions business in Staffordshire to the newly formed entity, which carries over none of the debt. The deal will be completed later today and preserve the 234 jobs at the site.

The intellectual property rights relating to Quinton Hazell was sold separately to Tetrosyl I-Tec, part of car care products group Tetrosyl.

Klarius Group operates three subsidiaries in Europe (France, Germany and Spain) but these companies are separate legal entities and have not been included in the UK administration.

Paul Flint, joint administrator and associate partner at KPMG, commented: “We are pleased to announce the sale of the Cheadle site – saving 234 jobs. Despite marketing the remaining divisions for sale, we were unable to find a buyer and have taken the difficult decision to wind them down.

“Prolonged challenging trading conditions in the automotive parts sector impacted Quinton Hazell’s performance. This created cashflow pressures and affected Quinton Hazell’s ability to trade as a going concern.”