Jobs At Risk As Wrexham Car Parts Factory Enters Administration

134 jobs have been put at risk after a car parts firm went into administration yesterday just months after opening a new factory in Wrexham and winning a £12m contract to supply General Motors.

Cobra UK relocated from Welshpool to the new site on Wrexham Industrial Estate at the start of this year creating 49 new jobs in a £6.5m expansion.

At the end of last year they secured a contract to supply interior parts for the new Vauxhall Astra.

However, now over 100 jobs are on the line after the firm called in the administrators citing “difficult trading conditions”.

BDO LLP business restructuring partners, Kim Rayment and Tracey Pye, were appointed joint administrators of Cobra UK Automotive Products Division Limited yesterday.

The company manufactures and supplies products to automotive manufacturers and other industries and last year they won the Queen’s Award For Industry. The company was also recently shortlisted for a European Business award.

Kim Rayment said: “Unfortunately the economic climate and difficult trading conditions significantly affected the business. The joint administrators are taking all necessary steps to mitigate losses to creditors and, going forward, will seek to maximise recoveries for the benefit of all creditors.”

The administrators are currently reviewing the position of the company.

Cobra’s managing director Gary Seale said the company had been in the process of negotiating a major deal when Santander Bank called in the administrators.

“We are working with the administrators to try and rescue the deal with a major German company and doing everything possible to save the 134 jobs involved,” he said.