William Jacks plc has warned that tough trading conditions will lead to a loss when it announces its interim results on July 31.

Its south-east operations have suffered in particular.

The group's results will show ‘a loss in the region of £800,000, after reflecting the profit on the sale of the Portslade premises'.

"Cost saving measures are now being implemented including a reduction in headcount across the group in the region of 60 staff, representing over 10% of total staff employed. This will make for annualised savings in excess of £1.5m. Redundancy costs will be reflected within the second-half results, but the statutory element itself is not expected to exceed £150,000," William Jacks said in a statement.

Williams Jacks also announced today the conditional sale and leaseback of freehold premises at Victoria Road, Portslade, Brighton with a Channel Islands based property fund.

The gross proceeds from the sale are £2.5m out of which a bank loan of £1.62m will be repaid.

The resulting surplus, after fees, of £525,000 will be used partly for the development of the new after-sales premises of its Sunningdale BMW operation. A 20-year lease will be entered into when its finished, on normal commercial terms, at a rent of £155,000 per annum. Completion is scheduled for this month.

William Jacks' chief executive John Adair will step down from the post when he reaches retirement age in April after 32 years with the group, the last nine in his current role.

Adair will remain on the board as a non-executive director. His current responsibilities will be shared between Mike Dodds, managing director of the motor group, and Andrew Dick, finance director. Dodds will remain as managing director of the motor group and assume overall responsibility for the company.