The Helphire Group – a major provider of replacement cars to drivers involved in non-fault crashes – has announced plans to axe up to 130 jobs due to ‘challenging market conditions’.

The news follows its announcement in December 2008 to save £5 million during the coming year and these job losses are part of that cost-cutting exercise.

“Market conditions continue to be challenging,” said the group’s chief executive Mark Adams.

“But our focus remains on the delivery of the previously announced efficiency and cost reduction programme.”

The company employs more than 3,000 staff at six call centres and across a national network of 30 branches.

It expects the majority of the job cuts to be from sites in the south west of England.

“Having undergone a thorough review of our cost base, we must ensure that every area of the group performs effectively to create value for our stakeholders and we are seeking to make a limited number of redundancies across several of our group’s companies.

“This will be undertaken with no reduction in levels of customer service. We anticipate this process taking place over the next three months,” added Mr Adams.

Helphire was founded in 1992 and has a fleet of around 17,000 vehicles operating under three divisions: UK Accident Management; Legal Services; and Helphire International.

Further details of the job cuts will be provided next week, when the group releases its half-yearly report.

Meanwhile, the company has also announced that due to the economic climate it is necessary to “rebalance the commercial benefit of placed repairs”.

The company places more than 70,000 repairs each year, worth around £100 million to the bodyshop industry.

Under new arrangements the company will remove a £50 factoring fee, while increasing its factoring charge from 10% to 15% of invoice and extend its standard payment terms from 28 working days to 90 calendar days.

Nick Litchfield, supply chain manager, said: “These changes reflect the reality of the economy.”