AROUND 40 staff have lost their jobs after a car dealership established in the 1960s went into receivership.

Hall Motors, on Folly Lane, in Bewsey, was forced to close last Wednesday – along with another garage in Birkenhead – after going into administration.

The business was set up by Penketh man Syd Hall in the mid-1960s. At one stage his family had seven dealerships, with another garage on Kerfoot Business Park and branches in Birkenhead, Runcorn, Crewe, Widnes and Chorley.

His son, Greg, aged 42, and daughter, Leanne, aged 35, joined the business as teenagers.

Miss Hall said: “We had a large rental fleet at both Warrington and Birkenhead but then when we stopped renting vehicles we had probably 80 or 90 to sell and the economic downturn came at completely the wrong time.

“People were not renting them any more and you wouldn’t get the right bonuses on them from Peugeot and when you came to sell them their value was too low.”

She says her father, now aged 73, had intended to retire this year.

“He started the business in the 1960s, it was like Kevin’s lock-up in Coronation Street,” she added.

“He was a mechanic. He used to fix cars up and sell them on. Then he opened a bodyshop doing up old bangers and selling them, and then in 1977, got a franchise with Chrysler.

“We just want to thank everybody very, very much for their business over the years.

“The people who worked here are so lovely – when they have got fixed up with new jobs they have come in to tell my dad because it has really upset him.”