As a business, Auto Windscreens started in 1971, and they have served private customers and many major motor insurance companies for a very long time. Unfortunately, the company has announced that over 1000 employees working at Auto Windscreens are now unemployed due to no investors willing to buy the business out.
The closure was announced at the Chesterfield base where they made 1042 job cuts, having received a large amount of interest but no actual investment. The company had hoped to save the business, which is totally understandable as it is one of the UK’s largest repair and windscreen companies.
While they attempted to do this the company went into administration on February 14 and a high percentage of employees were advised to leave, even though the company didn’t officially close till last week, and at this point the last of the workers still in attendance were terminated. It was said that the administrators had attempted to approach 90 potential buyers, but their efforts failed to collect enough funds.
Auto Windscreens have a turnover of £63 million, and throughout the UK the business controlled 68 fitting centres, a massive 550 mobile units, a distribution centre located in Aston and Birmingham, plus a call centre. Included in this, the company had a recovery department but experienced instability in the Autumn of 2010 when low profits and revenue caused problems and created strains on the cash flow within the business.
As a business the company held many meetings with a number of people to try and secure the problem with funding, but came to an end when a very important customer decided to end a contract.