Redundancies are being made at Pendragon but only on a small scale, the company has confirmed.

It follows rumours that up to 2,000 positions were being axed across its Evans Halshaw and Stratstone businesses.

AM’s calls to chief executive Trevor Finn had not been returned as we went to press, however.

The company has been conducting consultations with staff at several sites, but has denied there will be large-scale redundancies.

Some of the jobs affected are at Houghton House, the former Reg Vardy headquarters, where Pendragon is reviewing its vehicle finance and PDI departments. Sources suggest further cuts may follow.

One analyst said: “I suspect the job losses will be on a large scale because Pendragon has an awful lot of cost to cut.”

Rather than focusing on getting greater value from existing resources to raise customer value, the group has decided to cut costs by cutting people, he said.

“This reduces the amount of value you can deliver to customers,” he added.