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A South West car repair business is to close with the loss of 50 jobs and owing more than £1million to creditors and banks after it failed to obtain a coronavirus interruption loan.

Rodgman and Williams, which traded as Fix Auto and Fix and Go, will close its bodyshop sites in Plymouth, and in Paignton unless there is any last-minute attempt to buy the loss-making firm.

Letters are being sent to its 50 staff, across the two sites, telling them they to lose their jobs because directors have put the business into creditors’ voluntary liquidation (CVL) due to its financial situation.

Workers were made redundant on May 12, but about half of the workforce may not be aware yet because the coronavirus outbreak meant it has been difficult to contact them or meet them face-to-face.

However they are being reassured that they are likely to receive “most” of any redundancy payment or holiday pay they are owed. But it will be the tax-payer, via the National Insurance Fund, that will meet the bill.

Other creditors will have to wait and see if they can claim back what they are owed. Rodgman and Williams owes creditors £800,000 and has unpaid bank loans totalling £200,000.

It also has an outstanding tax bill, composed of unpaid VAT and PAYE contributions, of £120,000. This was run up between December 2019 and February 2020, before the Covid-19 outbreak.

Rodgman and Williams, which had been operating since 1988 and had its main office at Faraday Mill Business Park in Plymouth, was in financial difficulties before the pandemic struck, it has emerged. Its balance sheet, published in 2019, showed a deficit of £94,000.