Relyon, the bed manufacturer with sites in Wellington and Taunton, this week announced it had put some staff on short-time working.

Managing director Andy Murdoch blamed a low level of orders for the move.

He said business was normally quiet during the summer but things had been made worse by the sunny weather and football World Cup which had kept the public away from retail parks.

Mr Murdoch said: “It is with reluctance that some departments in Relyon have gone to short time working.

“Over the next few weeks Relyon will experience extremely difficult trading conditions but we are very well placed to capitalise on the expected upturn from September onwards with the exciting new range of beds presented to our customers in the spring.

“It is fair to say that Relyon has had a tough couple of years but I am very confident that all the changes made in recent times will ensure that Relyon moves from strength to strength and difficult decisions such as this will be put behind us.”

This time last year, Relyon announced it was shedding up to 29 jobs across the company’s sites in Wellington, Taunton and Okehampton which employ about 450 people.

However, the company said it would be creating ten jobs in “other support functions” as part of a re-structure of its business.