Bed factory owner Pete Gair has confirmed he has opened a new business in Westbury just days after his company, Norian Beds in Trowbridge, folded.

Angry rumours about the new business were sparked by some of the factory’s 80 staff who turned up on October 17 to find that they had been made redundant.

Many of the workers saw a fleet of vehicles leaving the premises, but suggestions that they contained stock which was being taken away before administrators could gets their hands on them have been denied.

Mr Gair, 54, who employs a further 200 people in his other companies around the south west and abroad, said: “It has been a huge part of my life for 27 years and I have put blood, sweat and tears into it over that time.

“Understandably many people are upset about what has happened but I have also received a lot of messages of support.”

Norian Beds had a turnover of £14m, with lucrative contracts supplying Argos, but it ran out of cash when a £320,000 contract with DIY giant Focus fell through following that company’s collapse earlier this year.

The new business, which is called Sleepon, will be operational within two weeks but will be a significantly smaller affair. It will supply beds for just one contract, but Mr Gair has not disclosed the location of the new factory.

Norian Beds’ accountant Jodie Loveday will not keep her post in the new company. She said: “Pete has run the business for a big part of his life and now he is trying to salvage what he can from it but the new business is going to be a lot smaller. There’s nothing underhand about it.”