Kwik Fit to axe eight out of 10 office staff at Scottish HQ

BRITAIN’s biggest tyre retailer has announced that 113 administration jobs are set to be axed in Scotland – just months after being sold to a Japanese firm.

Kwik Fit, the famous firm founded by entrepreneur Sir Tom Farmer in Leith in 1971, has confirmed 105 of the 134 office staff working from its long-running headquarters at Broxburn in West Lothian are at risk.

A further eight workers at its Edinburgh office and another 12 in St Albans are also facing redundancy following a major review of the company by new owner Itochu.

The Tokyo-based firm snapped up Kwik Fit, which accounts for around 20 per cent of the UK tyre market, in March of this year. It has now announced that the three Kwik Fit offices are to be centralised, to the Itochu UK headquarters at Letchworth, in Hertfordshire.

It currently employs around 825 staff across Scotland, and some 5,400 across Britain, although the redundancy process only affects office staff. Some 29 IT staff at the Broxburn plant are unaffected by the shake-up.

Itochu bought the retailer from French private equity firm PAI partners last year. The latter company had been breaking up and offloading the company in a series of deals since acquiring it in 2005, three years after Sir Tom left the company. He declined to comment yesterday.

A spokesman for Kwik Fit said: “Since the completion of the acquisition of Kwik Fit on 30 June, the Itochu management team has conducted a comprehensive review of the company in order to develop a strategy that strengthens its market leading position and supports its long-term growth.

“Following this review it is proposed that all the functions of the Kwik Fit offices in Broxburn, St Albans and Edinburgh, with the exception of the IT department, are to be relocated to Letchworth. Here it is proposed that they will be integrated with those of Itochu’s other UK automotive businesses, Stapletons and North Eastern Tyres”

The spokesman said the company had entered into a 120-day consultation process with all 125 employees.

Martyn Day, West Lothian Council’s economic development leader said: “We are extremely disappointed to hear the Itochu management team of Kwik Fit is holding a consultation with staff on the future of its head office function in Broxburn.

“Clearly this will be a blow to the staff involved and to West Lothian. We will be in touch with the company early next week to offer support to any staff who may be affected.”

Itochu was founded in 1858 and employs more than 4,000 staff. It has a £25 billion turnover earned from a wide range of products including textiles, machinery, IT, aerospace, energy, food and finance.