MORE than 800 jobs are to be saved after the former management of a Finelist subsidiary rescued it from receivership by buying it themselves.

Managing director John Moussell led the management buyout of the Motorworld chain - the second largest car after-care string the country - for an undisclosed sum. Mr Moussell pledged this week that despite the chain's breakaway from troubled Finelist, the third subsidiary to have been bought from receiver Ernst and Young, the company would stay loyal to Stratford and the 40 jobs at the firm's head office would be safe.

Mr Moussell said Christmas was the first priority for his new company, saved from the receivers with the help of fellow new directors Howard Brook, Joe Hopwood and David Hudson and backed by a mystery investor and the Royal Bank of Scotland. "Serving the customers and getting money in the tills comes first for the next two to three weeks, we need to get our heads down," he said. "After that, we have very strong ambitions for the next few years."

The company was rationalised when the Finelist group went into receivership and 160 stores were closed down because of low profits or because they were in undesirable areas or needed extensive refurbishment. The chain now features 200 stores and employs 800 people, including one in Stratford, and those stores were safe, said Mr Moussell, because they had proved their worth. After Christmas, the new directors will be hitting the road to meet all staff to tell them what the future holds and how it will affect them.