A furniture supplier to Marks & Spencer, Laura Ashley and John Lewis has become the latest victim of the credit crunch.

More than 130 jobs are thought to be hanging in the balance after Willis Gambier, an Essex-based furniture designer and importer, collapsed into administration this morning.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers revealed it had been appointed to find a buyer for the business and would seek to trade it as a going concern until a buyer could be found.

Willis Gambier was founded in 1990 as a bed manufacturer. It began targeting the premium furniture market ten years ago and a management buyout team bought the business at the beginning of last year.

The move will raise fresh fears about a spate of administrations over the coming days. Retailers' quarterly rents are due to be paid on Monday.

Some of Britain’s biggest stores have told Times Online that sales fell by as much as 15 to 20 per cent last week amid the financial turmoil in which Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and Lloyds TSB acquired HBOS.

The furniture market has been badly hit by the fallout from the credit crunch and nerves about the housing market.

John Lewis has suffered its worst homeware sales for at least four years while Lilian Tan, the chief executive of Laura Ashley, yesterday said that furniture was the only area where the group had “taken a beating”.

It emerged last week that MFI, the stricken bathrooms and kitchen manufacturer, has appointed Argyll Partners to raise emergency funding.

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