By Harry Mottram: Over the festive period and now the New Year more print based and allied trades and service firms have come unstuck. Get It Printed in Basildon collapsed before Christmas despite moving to their new premises where customers could visit with their ‘aim is to make printing simple, fast, and accessible for everyone’ while Bellerricay’s A & S Printers and publishers also crashed and were wound up last year.
Ashford
Jo Francis of Print Week – the trade journal and website for the print industry – reported in January 2025 on the problems for Ashford Colour Press after the Gosport company went into administration last autumn. To recap Pureprint bought their digital printing section while administrators Nicholas Simmonds and Chris Newell at Quantuma Advisory looked to sort out the tangled finances of the rest of the set up. The reasons given for the firm’s demise didn’t include the usual ones from the administrators such as Covid, lockdowns or a bad Brexit deal – instead a ‘major flood in 2005 and asbestos contamination in 2016’, were cited in Jo Francis’ report. The upshot is unsecured creditors will be lucky to get four pence half-penny in the pound from the £1.9m owed while the banks who are secured creditors should be paid in full.
Works Manchester
More from Jo Francis on Works Manchester – the un-mitigated disaster that befell the firm last year when it was bought by Darren McMurray’s Rymack Sign Solutions who then defaulted on coughing up the £m plus asking price. In her report in Print Week the journalist wrote: “The latest progress report from administrators David Acland and Anthony Collier at FRP Advisory details their progress in gathering in the firm’s debts. As part of the recovery process certain works were required to complete a formal contract with a major customer of Works Manchester that owed the company around £300,000 when FRP was appointed.”
The interesting part of the sorry saga is that a ‘customer owned item’ worth £50,000 had gone missing. She quoted FRP as saying: “The remaining debt due from the customer totalling £50,000 has been withheld due to the loss of a customer owned item which cannot be located (this was stored at third party premises).”
Total recoveries since appointment are £687,857 reported Francis – meaning there’s rather a large debt left over once the bean counters have finished raking over the ashes.
Ancient House
Meanwhile in the same publication Richard Stuart-Turner has reported on something of mystery over Ancient House bought by Sameer Rizvi of RDCP in 2021 after he published a letter to stakeholders about his business empire which failed to mention the aforementioned Ipswich print outfit. The Print Week reported on a number of conflicting statements from the owner suggesting nothing was amiss while implying a major shake down to save money despite an apparently healthy order book. Could it be another one of these new Ghost Insolvencies for Ancient House – where a firm is officially closed down but actually isn’t? Perhaps 2025 will reveal more.
STOP PRESS: January 17, 2025. Print Week added this news: “Ipswich web and sheetfed printer Ancient House Press has entered liquidation, only a month after its owner told Printweek that the business was undergoing a corporate restructure. New filings on The Gazette have confirmed that liquidators were appointed at Ancient House Press Ltd on Tuesday (14 January). Lee De’ath and Tom Gardiner of Begbies Traynor (Central) in Colchester have been appointed as joint liquidators of the business. The company’s statement of affairs is currently being processed at Companies House and is expected to be available in the next few days.”
Lemon Press
More redundancies and unpaid invoices for unsecured creditors at Lemon Press last year after the Redditch digital and litho print house was eventually wound up after entering creditors’ voluntary liquidation on 20 December with more than £100,000 in liabilities. Print Week’s Dominic Bernard gave these updates: “The Lemon Press Ltd is a separate and unconnected entity to The Lemon Press, the University of York’s satirical magazine. Encore Print Management Ltd is a separate and unconnected entity to The Encore Group, an envelope and packaging manufacturer, and DMC Encore. The liquidators’ statement of affairs as of 16 December, published on 6 January, show a total deficiency of £116,000. At the time, the firm’s plant, machinery, furniture and equipment was estimated to realise £356,000.”
For more on Print Week visit https://www.printweek.com/news/
Below are more recent casualities in the printing and allied trades:
ADMINISTRATORS APPOINTED
CONDUCTIVE TRANSFERS LIMITED 10775169
CRAFTER`S COMPANION LIMITED 05734881
CIITECH LTD 10842954
FPP FILM LIMITED 14289125
HART MILLER DESIGN LTD. 06591744
HORIZONWORKS MARKETING LIMITED 07127352
SEVERNPRINT LIMITED 01317797
VISION MEDIA ONLINE LIMITED 10356435
ADMINISTRATION MEETING OF CREDITORS
MONUMENT PAPER BAG CO LIMITED (THE) 00481099
CREDITORS’ VOLUNTARY LIQUIDATION DEEMED IN CONSENT MEETINGS
ES PRESS LTD 15738212
MAILFLOW SOLUTIONS LIMITED 08963557
MEDIA A2Z LIMITED 05697774
THAMES VALLEY FRAMES LIMITED 08899648
CVL LIQUIDATORS APPOINTED
ADVANCED CAMERA SERVICES LIMITED 05490757
GETITPRINTED.COM LIMITED 11673915
LINEAR PRINT LTD 07814319
MACKMEDIA LTD 10266334
MONKS MARKETING & MEDIA LTD 10704218
PRESTIGE MARKETING (UK) LTD 08774217
PRISM MARKETING GROUP LIMITED 11556308
THE LEMON PRESS LIMITED 02597221
WELLPACK EUROPE LTD 06398419
VAULT PRINTING LIMITED T/A BANNER MAN & MAX PRINT 08021298
WELFORD MEDIA LIMITED 05315622
MEMBERS VOLUNTARY LIQUIDATIONS
AUDION GLOBAL LTD 11546217
BRIGHT MARKETING FOR THE ARTS LIMITED 09566811
DESIGN MATERIALS LTD. 03679521
INSIGHT PRINT MEDIA LIMITED 06736188
MERMAN MEDIA LTD 10484071
THE GREAT EASTERN CRAFT CO-OPERATIVE LIMITED 02229809
U.K.RADIO NEWS LIMITED 00968460
WEST COUNTRY FAIRS AND COUNTY SHOWS LIMITED 02992583
PETITION DISMISSED
ENSIGN GRAPHIC SOLUTIONS LIMITED 05015222
WELLPACK EUROPE LTD 06398419
PETITIONS TO WIND UP
GLOBAL HEALTHCARE MARKETING LIMITED 13255387
JH2 DESIGNS LTD 09390619
LSD SIGNS LIMITED 11751791
W G OFFICE SUPPLIES LIMITED 01350592
SECRETARY OF STATE LIQUIDATION APPOINTMENT
IMAGE 2 OUTPUT LIMITED 04899814
KENNINGTON ARTS CLUB LIMITED 13664373
RYMACK SIGN SOLUTIONS LIMITED 05806281
UPPER STREET FILM AND TV LIMITED 13112324
WINDING UP ORDERS
A & S PRINTERS 05745694
DIGITAL MEDIA DIRECT LIMITED 10441274
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