Domestic furniture manufacturer New Plan Furniture Ltd has called in the receivers.

The firm, which employs about 200 people, said it is unclear how many staff will be made redundant but a spokesman admitted that "significant job losses will be inevitable".

One worker, who did not want to be named, told the Telegraph & Argus that about 70 workers were asked to leave the factory in Bowling Back Lane, Bradford, yesterday afternoon.

"They were told they had lost their jobs and given forms to claim redundancy money from the Government," he said. "I was gutted as I had worked for the firm for most of my working life and none of us had been kept informed about what was happening.

"It was obvious that the firm did have problems, but to be told this way is unbelievable.

"People were in tears, there are people who have been left jobless who have families and mortgages to pay and they been told by the firm that they will not receive a penny off it.

"The staff left behind do not even know if they will get any wages."

The receivers Geoffrey Martin & Co, of Leeds, say they are hoping to sell the firm as a going concern.

New Plan, which was set up in 1971 by George Dilger and his wife Maureen, began making and installing wooden fire surrounds from rented premises in Bradford, trading under the name of Key Units.

Recently though, it began experiencing difficult trading conditions.

The firm, which has had a 320,000sq ft factory at Upper Croft Mills, Laisterdyke, since 1982, expanded quickly after it was set up to offer a national mail order service. It also took over another Bradford business Trinity Box and Manufacturing.

In 1971 the company expanded into the production of low cost oak furniture and became known as New Plan.

In a statement directors of New Plan said: "Cheap imports have led to an increasingly uncompetitive marketplace for the company resulting in unsustainable losses.

"Working with the receivers, we are reviewing current operational levels and it is unfortunately anticipated that significant job losses will be inevitable."

Geoffrey Martin and John Twizell, have been appointed as joint administrative receivers of the firm.

Mr Twizell said: "It is our intention to allow the company to continue to trade while we explore the prospects for selling it as a going concern."

The firm's chairman George Dilger, who is now 73 years old, had success in the Grand National in 2000 when his horse, Niki Dee, came third.