CTD Tiles, one of the UK’s biggest tile suppliers, has shut 56 of its stores after falling into administration.

The closures include its Chester site in Hartford Way, off Bumpers Lane.

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

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.

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

CTD ran sites across the UK with trade and retail showrooms and recorded roughly £75 million in revenues for the past year.

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.

“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.”