A total of 374 Kent jobs will be lost after a luxury food firm entered administration.

Silverstars Food Limited, which owns wholesalers Turner Fine Foods, handed redundancy notices to employees across sites in Goudhurst, Tonbridge, Christchurch, Dorset and Earby in Lancashire.

The firm, which also operated the Camden Quarter restaurant in Tunbridge Wells, where it employed 10 people, called in administrators after a period of "sustained losses".

The company underwent a merger with Coastline Produce Ltd last year.

In April, it announced increased revenues and profits, with a turnover of £41.5 million reported.

The head office was based at Spelmonden Farm in Cranbrook with it's registered office located in Tonbridge.

“The company was unable to continue to trade and the directors took the difficult decision to place it into administration..." - Will Wright, KPMG

Despite efforts to turn the business around, Will Wright, Mark Orton and Colin Haig from KPMG Restructuring were appointed as joint administrators.

All operations have ceased to trade and a total of 457 members of staff were notified of their redundancy.

The joint administrators have retained a skeleton staff to assist them with fulfilling outstanding orders and affecting a wind-down of the business.

Will Wright, partner at KPMG and joint administrator, said: “Following a period of sustained losses and despite the directors' best efforts to affect a turnaround and sale of the business, the company was unable to continue to trade and the directors took the difficult decision to place it into administration.

"Over the coming days we will commence an orderly wind-down of the business, and will also be speaking to interested parties with a view to trying to secure a sale of the assets.

"We would encourage anybody who may be interested in acquiring either stock or assets to contact the joint administrators as soon as possible.”