Avtoland Holding no longer operates show rooms in Novosibirsk, Continent-Siberia business portal reports.

‘The company’s car shows are closed, no one answers the phone, and the dealer is getting ready to leave the premises rented from Uralchermetavto (Avtoland Holding’s affiliated company). According to Yekaterinburg-based Avtoland Holding’s representative Svetlana Petrovikh, they are now busy taking inventory of all the property and stock; this is to be completed by September 25,2009, however,’ the portal quotes the company representative as saying.

‘The company owes a lot of money to a range of banks and is unable to handle all the payments right now. It has been rumored that Avtoland’s show rooms have been bought by SLK-Motors, their major rival, which, if true, will mean the latter will also be able to get access to the dealer contracts. As a result, SLK-Motors’ share of Novosibirsk’s retail automobile market might reach between 40% and 60%,’ Continent-Siberia claims.

Avtoland-Siberia is the official dealer of Ford, Hyundai, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mazda, Mitsubishi, and Volvo in Novosibirsk.

In the meantime, Avtoland sold its Avtoland Sever show room at 6 Kosmonavtov Ave. in Yekaterinburg at the end of July 2009. Ford organized a tender in order to select its new Yekaterinburg dealer, but so far, Avtoland Holding is the car manufacturer’s only official local dealer.