The flooding that has hit parts of northern England knocked out the Sheffield bodyshop operated by Just Car Clinics. Water levels around the building in Sutherland Street reached almost 3ft.

Chief executive Barry Whittles said he was confident the event would have no long-term effect on the business, which is expected to re-open in late July. The 29,000 sq ft facility, with two spray booths, usually has a repair throughput of 75 jobs per week.

JCC’s management team visited the site during the flood, and called in an operations team which implemented the business’s disaster recovery programme.

“They immediately made the decision to close the site for two to three weeks to carry out a full clean-up,” said Whittles.

“The initial assessment of the site revealed that approximately 45 cars were damaged beyond repair and the car park and workshop were awash. Fortunately, however, the majority of the cars in the workshop suffered only light damage.”

Undamaged cars were moved from the site to a leased premises nearby. JCC’s IT staff relocated its computer server to the group’s training and support centre in Goole and all telephone calls were redirected to a sister bodyshop in Sheffield’s Woodbourne Road. The 30,000 sq ft centre has three spray booths and is capable of 85 repairs per week.

Whittles added: “The contingency plans that we have in place have allowed us to address this very severe situation quickly and effectively.

All Sheffield team members are now back at work, based at Woodbourne Road. Our IT system is fully operational again and customers are being briefed on the status of their vehicles.”