MORE than 180 jobs have been saved at the world's biggest place mat manufacturer.

The jobs were saved by a management buyout at Pimpernel International, in Consett, County Durham.

The tableware group was placed in receivership on Tuesday and sold the following day to a management team led by Alastair Ritchie, who is also chairman of Edinburgh Crystal Glass Company.

It had been struggling for months after debts rose above £20m following the acquisition in 2002 of its biggest rival, Wiltshire-based homeware group Cloverleaf.

Because it went into receivership, the new owners were able to take on the company's assets and staff without its debts.

The sale was conducted by joint administrative receivers from Ernst and Young.

A spokeswoman for Ernst and Young said: "The acquisition of Cloverleaf worsened the debt position.

"Because of the continued poor performance of the retail sector as a whole, it could not make this up.

"The debts also meant it was not an attractive proposition for any potential buyers and that was why it had to go through the receivership process."

It is the second management buy-out at Pimpernel in four years.