One of the biggest motor dealerships in Sussex has assured staff its remaining branches are safe after a showroom closed.

Caffyns has been forced to close its Seaford showroom following the demise of the MG Rover group.

The company announced its branch in Seaford would shut on May 18 but its five other MG Rover showrooms were to stay open.

The 11 staff at the Seaford outlet will be made redundant if Caffyns is unable to offer them suitable alternative jobs.

The firm's MG Rover branches in Brighton, Worthing and Eastbourne are in the process of being refranchised to another car firm, possibly Vauxhall.

Showrooms in Lewes and Uckfield will continue as used car and after-sales operations.

The company's two MG Rover Parts workshops, in Hailsham and Portslade, are thought to be unaffected by the crisis at the Longbridge plant.

Family-run Caffyns is owed £54,000 by MG Rover and will also be expected to foot warranty costs, which the defunct manufacturer is unlikely to honour. The Eastbourne-based firm is trying to sell its £3.6 million stock of new and used Rover cars at "massive" discounts.

Caffyns has seen the value of its shares slump by ten per cent since the demise of MG Rover.

A spokeswoman said: "We are making every effort to redeploy staff within the group and have already identified 23 vacancies, which we have put on hold for staff to consider. The demise of MG Rover is a most unfortunate situation over which we have no control. We are endeavouring to minimise the effect on both our employees and customers."

Customers who have bought new cars from the Seaford branch are being referred to the company's Eastbourne site.

Chief executive Simon Caffyn said other MG Rover dealerships had fared much worse. Caffyns had gradually distanced itself from the declining brand by reducing the number of dealerships and motors it has in stock.

He added: "While there will be some disruption, our actions over the last few years and our swift response to the current situation has ensured this is kept to a minimum."

Established in 1865, Caffyns employs about 800 staff in 32 showrooms across the county with Audi, Skoda, Volkswagen and Ford dealerships.

Dinnages, in Haywards Heath, is the only other new MG Rover dealer in the county but most of its business comes from Ford. A spokeswoman said the firm had only been selling the cars for a few months but made no other comment.

The Crawley Down dealership stopped selling MG Rover cars last year. St Leonards Motors, in St Leonards, and Skinners, in Rye, are also MG Rover dealers but could not provide a comment yesterday.

More than 4,000 MG Rover workers were recently made redundant in Longbridge, Birmingham.