Antony Fanshawe of Begbies Traynor – the company handling the high profile administration of Southampton Football Club – has been appointed as administrator to conclude the business operations of Wyatt Motor Group, a family-owned network of Citroën garages with dealerships in Winchester, Poole and Wokingham.

Founded by Colin Wyatt in 1991, the Group – which had a turnover of £22m in 2008 – suffered a major setback last summer when the disposal of its Poole operation stalled within days of completion.

National sales of new Citroën vehicles have dropped 30% since May 2008. The rapid decline in the economy and resultant impact on consumer confidence towards the end of last year made Wyatt’s recovery virtually impossible.

Reductions in borrowing were achieved through the sale of premises in Lymington earlier this year. At the same time staff agreed to a 10% pay cut in support of the business but the positive impact of this saving was negated by a recent increase in interest rates on the Group’s borrowing.

A total of 46 jobs are at risk but significant interest has been shown in the business and there is a possibility that it will continue at some or all of the three sites.

Fanshawe commented: “Wyatt’s directors have taken a number of very sensible steps over the past few months in a bid to safeguard the Group’s longevity and after 18 years in the motor trade, the decision to call it a day has not been taken lightly.

“However, I am pleased to say that I have received a good deal of interest in the business over the past few days so I am encouraged that we could do a deal to sell some or all of the dealerships as going concerns.”

The dealerships in administration are Wyatt of Winchester, Wyatt of Poole and Wyatt Concorde in Wokingham.