Headon & Quarmby, the 79-year-old family-run lingerie manufacturer behind Mary Portas's Kinky Knickers lingerie range, has called in administrators.

Portas reopened the sewing room at the factory in Middleton, Greater Manchester, when she launched her lingerie range as part of the Channel 4 series Mary's Bottom Line, which was a high-profile attempt to focus on how the UK manufacturing industry could be revived. But the jobs of the company's 33 staff are now at risk after administrators from the accountancy firm BDO were appointed earlier this week.

Despite several reports that the range was selling well in stores such as House of Fraser, the joint administrator Kerry Bailey said a drop in post-Christmas orders had hit the business. She said: "We are doing everything we can to try to secure a future for the business, and we are hopeful of securing a sale."

Mary Portas, who said she didn't have any financial involvement in the business, said she was "really upset" to hear about the factory's financial troubles because its initial success had helped get the fashion industry talking about bringing manufacturing back to the UK.

"We are ringing around seeing how we can support them," she said. "I think there's a future for the business and so do they."

She added: "You need to fight for stuff and try and make change. This was a very important thing we did for British manufacturing, and if the media keep knocking things when slips happen, they we will never make change and that's real change."

Eight apprentices were taken on during the Bottom Line show, paid for by the TV production company Endemol for the first nine months. The company later doubled its workforce in a bid to keep up with demand. It had recently revealed plans to launch its own sleepwear and lingerie range – Ella&Me – and had planned to open its own academy to train sewing staff next to the factory.