DOZENS of people have been made redundant from a North Yorkshire furniture company, but have been given a glimmer of hope.

RK Furniture, of Tholthorpe near Easingwold, has gone into administration with the loss of 45 jobs, after trading for more than 30 years.

The £2.5 million turnover firm specialised in manufacturing wooden office furniture from desks, tables and pedestals, to bookcases, filing cabinets and cupboards.

Administrators FRP Advisory, the restructuring, recovery and insolvency specialist blamed “financial difficulties caused by difficult marketing conditions”.

A buyer was sought in vain, but FRP Advisory spokesman Philip Armstrong said that now there were discussions with “two parties on the prospect of buying all the assets and restarting the company”.

However, he said, it would be wrong to raise false hopes among RK Furniture’s redundant employees that they could be re-employed.

“If one of them does buy all the assets of the company, there is no guarantee that it would stay in the area. Staying would involve negotiations with the landlord of the 120,000 sq ft factory, but it is vaguely possible.”

Meanwhile, the aim was to recover as much value as possible, even if that meant, in the end, putting the assets out to auction.

Anyone interested in the future of the assets should phone Fiona Rae at FRP Advisory on 0161 8335621.