THE man at the helm of the UK's largest car dealership last night raised the prospect of up to 200 jobs being created in the North-East at the former headquarters of the Reg Vardy empire.

Trevor Finn, chief executive of Pendragon, which bought Reg Vardy earlier this year for £506m, said rather than close the Vardy headquarters, at Houghton House, Sunderland, he would be creating jobs there.

Pendragon's group-wide human resources and Internet support divisions will be based in Sunderland and, with the growth of the company, Mr Finn said it was feasible that between 150 and 200 jobs would be created.

About 250 staff work there at present.

Mr Finn also said that while the Reg Vardy name would be kept for the time being, there were plans to phase it out eventually.

"The integration of the two businesses is going well," he told The Northern Echo.

"We have a new structure in place for the group on the operational side.

"Reg Vardy had a good facility in Sunderland, with some good support businesses for its group, and we are keen to expand certain aspects of those.

"It is almost certain that we will be creating jobs. At the moment we are just evaluating the business units there.

"There is a good human resources unit which we are looking to expand.

"Over the medium term the Pendragon group as it is now is going to continue to grow and, as we continue to grow, a lot of that growth will be supported by Sunderland.

"We have a capacity in the building for another 150 to 200 people, so that gives you some idea of how it could grow.

"We have a similar facility at Nottingham, which started out with nothing four years ago and now 550 people work there, which shows how fast we are growing.

"We have nearly reached capacity there, so Sunderland will be the next place to grow."

Mr Finn said Pendragon planned further acquisitions and the Sunderland office would help to provide support services for the group.