Speaking to the Citizen from the north of England, where he was trying to find potential purchasers, he said: "There are still people interested and I have spoken to most of them and passed their details to the administrators KPMG.

"They are a mixture of private individuals, general investors and paper-makers and there is still some hope that somebody will buy the business.

"It gets more difficult as we come to (what would have been) the end of the annual holiday period, though another week or two might still be alright. I am not sure if KPMG have received firm offers yet."

One of the three Fife councillors for the area, Ron Caird, spoke this week about the cross party support for the workforce.

"Guardbridge exists because of Curtis Fine Papers. There are so many families involved in the area, people who've worked there all their lives.This is just another nail in the coffin of industry in this country that's got to be resisted. "

Despite approaches to KPMG, no comment was available at the time of going to press.