FRESH and frozen food supplier Albert Fisher has gone into receivership and is to be divided up and sold off.

The group, which employs about 3,000 staff in the UK is trading as normal, but receiver KPMG wants a quick sale of each of its businesses to secure as many jobs as possible.

The group employs 340 staff in Gosforth, Newcastle, and 280 in York.

Mick McLoughlin, corporate recovery partner and joint administrative receiver at KPMG, said: "Albert Fisher has a history of developing and maintaining strong customer relationships, and from the outset we will be in discussions with those major customers, suppliers and trade creditors and employees to ensure their ongoing support.

"We are continuing to trade the business as normal. Given the strong market position of the company, we are hopeful of concluding a sale of each of the businesses quickly to secure as many jobs as possible.

''The subsidiaries also include operations in the US and Europe which are not in any form of insolvency process.

"The US operations are currently in the midst of a sale process and the receiver will be looking at the sale options for the European operations in Spain, Belgium and Holland."

Albert Fisher supplies fresh and frozen vegetables, sea-food, chilled salad and fruit to supermarkets in the UK.

Originally a small fruit and vegetable firm, it was built into an international company in the 1980s. But the group struggled during the recession of the early 1990s, and profits collapsed.

It has been going through a recovery programme driven by former executive chairman Terry Robinson, who joined in 1998 to revitalise the group.

In March, the group said it was in talks with its lenders over its financing after trading worsened. Mr Robinson resigned last month.

To keep the company afloat, its lenders were seeking to swap their loans for equity, which it was thought would return more to banks than receivership and sale of assets.

Albert Fisher said yesterday it had been "unable to reach agreement with its lenders" and had no option but to appoint receivers.

The group, which has debts of about £100m, reported pre-tax losses of £13.4m on turnover of £710m for its last financial year. Shares were suspended at 2p, valuing the firm at £14m.