PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) senior manager Robert Brown is trying to sell it as a going concern, and said there had been considerable interest in the firms name, stock, and business as a whole.

PwC was appointed on 22 April and made the job cuts across the merchants two operations in Nottingham and Manchester.

The company closed outlets in Leeds, Sheffield, Leicester and Northampton over the past two years. It was founded in 1950 and employs around 50 staff at Nottingham and the Manchester subsidiary, Samuel Crowther.

Its last filed accounts, for the year to 31 December 1999, showed a pre-tax loss of 380,503 on sales approaching 15m.