Nidd Vale Group, one of the first to truly embrace multi-franchising with its five brand dealership in Harrogate, has collapsed after financial difficulties.

The £43m turnover dealer has Vauxhall, Mazda and Seat franchises at Harrogate, another Vauxhall outlet at Wetherby, and had previously also represented Saab, Peugeot and Mitsubishi.

Administrators from Leonard Curtis have been sent in by Santander.

Vauxhall said it is still trading while negotiations progress with a potential buyer.

It comes three weeks after administrators firm Leonard Curtis was called in to Vauxhall dealer Monorep, which had dealerships in Hayes and Southall, Greater London. AM understands these have closed.

Nidd Vale had been planning to relocate to another site in Knaresborough and allow its Harrogate property to be redeveloped by a supermarket.

AM's learned from dealer sources earlier this week that a sale or closure was expected today, however calls to Nidd Vale's managing director Neil Crossley, a former general manager at Marshall Motor Group, have not been returned.

Nidd Vale has been highly geared since 2007.

It went through two seperate management buyouts in the last decade, first by Colin Hainstock in 2003, then by Paul Stokes in 2007, both backed by Bank of Scotland.

Richard Jackson, who had chaired the group prior to Hainstock's MBO which left him heading its Mercedes-Benz operation in North Yorkshire, which he then sold to Rybrook, had remained a shareholder.

> Nidd Vale Group franchise and financial overview. Source: AMi