More than half the workforce at a West Midlands car hire and repair company has been axed after the firm went into administration, it was revealed today.

After more than 40 years in the region, Richmond Motors Group has been broken down and sold off to a number of different companies, shedding 69 jobs.

Fifty staff will be retained by firms buying parts of the business as going concerns.

The recession is blamed for a dip in demand at the firm, which had five offices in Lye, Smethwick and Redditch.

Administrators at KPMG have sold four businesses in three separate deals.

Just Car Clinics Ltd bought the accident repair business and assets in Lye and Redditch, saving 31 jobs. Cheshire Hire bought the accident repair business at Hawthorns Industrial Estate, Smethwick, saving 12 jobs.

The Thomas’s Groupbought the vehicle rental business at Middlemore Road, Smethwick, on November 10, preserving a further seven jobs The third branch, on Cornwall Road, Smethwick, closed leaving 21 out of work.

One of the remaining workers at the branch in Stourbridge Road, Lye, said: “We were pretty much two or three days from losing our jobs altogether, so it came as a very welcome announcement.”

The firm appointed joint administrators Andrew Stephen McGill and Mark Jeremy Orton of KPMG to run the firm on October 12.

Employees have re-painted the former Richmond building inside and out, putting the new firm’s colours up.

Richmond Motors Group, the trading name of RF Bradnock Limited, was founded in 1965 and in 2008 had an annual turnover of around £9.5million.

Mr McGill said: “We are pleased that a total of fifty jobs have been preserved following the various sales of parts of the business in a challenging market place.”