Carter & Carter hopes business will return to normal today after support service providers stopped working yesterday for fear of not being paid, leading to 13 apprentices from its Newport site to be sent home.

Douglas Waddell, managing director of apprentice learning in Carter & Carter's Automotive Division, said in the hiatus between announcing its intention to enter administration and formally appointing Deloitte as administrator, some suppliers such as transport and catering providers ceased work as they could not legally be assured payment.

As a result, "a handful" of trainees - around 13 - were sent home early from its centre in Newport, Wales.

However, he told AM last night that now that Deloitte has been appointed he expected any issues to be sorted out by this morning and urged all trainees to "resume normal business".

"We hope it's not affected going forward. Until the administrator was appointed we as a management team did not have the legal ability to say 'we will stand by you and pay the bills'."