As we have previously reported, Lola Cars International entered bankruptcy administration last May with debts of more than $23 million, but continued to operate during the intervening months as the administrators tried to find a buyer. The news became bleaker in early October with word that trading had ceased and the company’s assets would be put up for sale.
At that time, the administrator, CCW Recovery Solutions, issued a statement saying they had not received an acceptable offer for the business as a going concern, and had stopped trading, unfortunately leading to the redundancy of the remaining staff.
Then came news of a fresh partnership that would allow the Lola name to continue under a licensing agreement with Carl Haas Auto, longtime importer of Lola cars to the USA in suburban Chicago, and Multimatic Engineering, Toronto-based manufacturer of components for the automotive industry.
The deal with Lola Group Holdings is believed to assign the new partnership rights to the Lola name and intellectual property, so that Multimatic will be able to commence designing and building new rolling stock, likely in the prototype ranks, while Haas Auto will handle sales and distribution. Multimatic has reportedly hired several key former Lola employees who had been made redundant by the bankruptcy proceedings.
Lola Group Holdings retains rights to the trademarked name Lola, as well as intellectual property rights to all the Lola designs, while the separate subsidiary Lola Composites, which also entered bankruptcy proceedings in May, continues to do business as the administrators have identified two possible buyers, although neither has yet made a firm commitment to purchase the company.
