Kwik-Fit is being sold to the same Japanese group that owns UK fast-fit rival Stapleton’s Tyre Services (STS).

The £637m deal puts the UK’s largest fast-fit chain in the hands of Itochu Corporation, a multinational £25bn-turnover trading company with wide wide-ranging interests, including tyre-related businesses, textiles and machinery.

Itochu has owned STS since 1994 and has grown that business into a network of more than 110 fast-fit workshops plus a national tyre wholesaling operation.

The addition of £900m turnover Kwik-Fit, if approved by the competition authorities, would give Itochu an additional 1,218 workshops in Europe, of which 673 are in the UK.