Filing for protection in the courts gives the group breathing space from its creditors to find additional funds.

But Katz chief financial officer Dr Simon Welte stressed: “Only three German business units have gone into protection and the UK business is not affected.”

Dr Welte said administrators had been appointed to seek new investors or extra funding from current shareholders.

Katz Group has operations in Germany, Belgium, the UK and sites at New York and Tennessee in the USA.

Quarmby Promotions was formed in 1872 as a packaging business and began making drip mats in 1931.

It has sold more than 9.5bn beer mats and is the world’s largest producer of drip mats, with operations in the UK, Germany and Belgium.

The company has customers in more than 50 countries, including ones in Europe, North and South America and south-east Asia.

Customers have included Bulmers, Tennents, Stella Artois, Thwaites and Mitchells and Butlers.