SOUTH YORKSHIRE: Pilkington's Tiles has been placed into administration.

The company, which supplies tiles to retail chains including B&Q, appointed Paul Flint and Brian Green from the Manchester office of KPMG Restructuring as joint administrators to Pilkington's Group and to subsidiaries Pilkington's Tiles, Pilkington's Tiles Ireland and Quiligotti Access Flooring.

Joint administrator Paul Flint said the company had "suffered intense cashflow pressures as a result of recent adverse trading conditions".

Pilkington's chief executive Ray Tarr led a buyout of the business in May 2004. Alongside its core manufacturing facility in Swinton which employed 325 staff, the company also has a site in Poole, Dorset, which includes a quarry with the capacity for 350 000 tons of heavy clay used in the manufacture of vitrified floor tiles.

It employed 45 staff, while 10 staff worked at a facility in Swords, Dublin. It also had a showroom and factory shop in Audenshaw, Tameside.

In the year to 31 March 2009, the firm posted a pre-tax loss of £2.9m because of declining sales in its ceramics division. It said that sales of ceramic tiles, which is its core product, dropped by 3.8% during the year to £31.1m. In the notes to the accounts, directors blamed the drop in volumes on a reduction in activity by house building firms.

They also pointed to "the effective collapse of the trade credit insurance market" for a reduction in sales, and said that the falling pound, making the import of ceramics more expensive, had also hit them.

Mr Flint said that KPMG intended to continue trading the business while it seeks a buyer. "We would encourage any interested parties to contact us as soon as possible."