One of the UK’s biggest tile suppliers has shut 56 of its stores after falling into administration.

Administrators of CTD Tiles said that 268 workers were made redundant after the collapse.

However, 30 of its shops and two distribution sites were bought in a rescue deal by rival Topps Group.

The showroom in Coburg Street in King's Lynn is one of the stores that has been closed along with the branch in Ipswich.

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Sites at Arms Park Road in Norwich and Holt Road in Fakenham were among the 30 shops saved in the rescue deal. 

The company, which ran 86 stores across the UK and employed 425 staff, fell into insolvency on Monday after coming under pressure from a downturn in the home improvement sector.

James Lumb, managing director at Interpath Advisory and joint administrator of CTD Tiles, said tough market conditions proved “insurmountable” for the supplier in recent months “as consumer and trade demand failed to recover in line with expectations”.

He added: “The transaction with Topps Group provides continuity for a considerable number of staff and stores as part of a major tiles group.

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“Regrettably, the remaining sites have closed, which has resulted in redundancies.

“We are now focused on supporting those staff and have specialist teams on site working with impacted employees to help make representations to the Redundancy Payments Service where relevant.”

Rob Parker, Topps Group chief executive, added: “The CTD brand and assets are an excellent fit with our existing business and the acquisition creates a new and complementary specialist tile business within the Topps Group.

“CTD operates a different model to our existing Topps Tiles retail stores, with separate trade and retail offers within each unit and a number of market-specific sub-brands which are differentiated from our existing offer.”