Kitchen and bathroom specialist Mark Two Distributors has gone into administration, two weeks after Tesco pulled the plug on its business with the company.
The Bolton-based distributor had handled the grocer's kitchen and bathroom fitting business since 2008, but last month Tesco said it was closing Tesco Kitchens and Tesco Bathrooms because of "concerns about [Mark Two Distributors'] ability to deliver the service our customers expect".

Administrators at Duff & Phelps have made 196 people redundant, and the 17 remaining employees are working with the administrators to identify and sell the assets of the company.

Meanwhile, at sister company Mark Two Home 137 redundancies were made shortly before the appointment of the administrators. The company has contracts with Debenhams and Laura Ashley, and said it was working in conjunction with Laura Ashley to return full deposits to customers whose kitchens had not yet been installed. It is also promising to honour contracts with any customers whose kitchens are currently being refitted.

Tesco's ditching of Mark Two is not the only catastrophe to have hit the company, whose history is littered with business relationships that have gone wrong. Over the years it has had to cope with the fallout from the collapse of Dolphin Bathrooms, Focus, MFI and Wickes, amongst others.

It also lost almost £200,000 when Liverpool independent Rapid Hardware went into administration in February 2013. The retailer has since re-emerged as Rapid Discount Outlet.

Mark Two was acquired several years ago by Ultra Finishing.