Norwich Union has now agreed terms to purchase the three bodyshop sites owned by Deejay Accident Repair Centres in Finchley, Tottenham and Wood Green (AM May 19).

The insurance company now has 12 wholly-owned repair shops in its Solus group of bodyshops.

The three bodyshops were doing around 500 jobs per week in total, half of them at Finchley, and this level of throughput is expected to continue. They will add £6m to Solus’s estimated £38m turnover.

Deejay owner Dave Shepherd restructured the business two and a half years ago and entered into a CVA. This was paid off in full before selling his sites to Norwich Union. The terms of the deal with Solus have not been disclosed.

Shepherd has kept his premises in Barnet, which includes a training room. As a leading expert on systems provider Audatex, he is tipped to move into training, with a focus on IT and estimating systems.