Employees are clearing out their desks at Marlborough International, the Irish recruitment organisation that called in the receivers last week.

On Thursday the company issued a statement saying that the company did not have sufficient funding to continue its operations.

At the same time, it suspended trading in shares on the London and the Irish stock exchanges.

The statement said that the difficult trading conditions that blighted its performance last year had persisted into January.

Marlborough’s board had been looking for a financial lifeline over the last few months and had been considering disposing of its Scottish division and Walker Hamill, a recruitment company it owned in the UK that is still trading. A receiver has now been appointed to these companies.

A statement published last week sounded almost like an epitaph. It said: ‘It is the board’s intention to work with the receiver to secure the best outcome for employees, creditors and shareholders.

”Finally the directors wish to thank the employees for their unstinting efforts in attempting to turn the group around. This work has been enormously appreciated and we wish that today’s action could have been avoided for their sakes.’

A Marlborough employee told Professional Recruiter: ‘Everyone is moving out, I don’t work here anymore.’

Reports in the Irish Times indicate that a ‘substantial number’ of the firm‘s staff had been made redundant.

Last year, the organisation made a third of its workforce of more than 460 redundant because of the poor economic conditions.