On Monday (28 October), Andrew Poxon and Conrad Beighton of Leonard Curtis Business Rescue & Recovery in Manchester were appointed joint administrators of KJB UK Ltd and Creative Digital Printing Solutions Ltd, the wide-format division established by KJB when it purchased the assets and trading name of Creative Digital Printing, which went into administration in early 2017.
Based in Cannock, Staffordshire, KJB primarily supplied to the trade while Creative Digital supplied to the end-user.
A statement sent by the administrators to Printweek today said: “The joint administrators are currently in dialogue with the companies’ stakeholders to agree an optimum realisation and recovery strategy for the benefit of all creditors.”
They added “there remains an opportunity to acquire various assets held by the companies” and that updates would continue to be provided “in due course”.
Last year KJB acquired the assets of WM Print, after the Walsall firm was closed by its former owners and placed into liquidation. Rebranded as WM Printing Solutions, the acquisition brought a third production site on board for KJB.
Printweek understands that operations at this site were ceased a few weeks ago, but its trading company, WM Printing Solutions Ltd, was active at the time of writing and its fate remains unclear.
In March, KJB group commercial director Stephen Egerton said 11 staff worked at the Walsall site at that time and that KJB was leasing WM’s building, which was in a pension fund.
The acquisition had enabled KJB, established in 1989 and a 46-staff group as of March, to move into B1, as kit from WM included a B1 six-colour Manroland 706 litho press and a two-colour Solna coldset web press.
Egerton also said in March that the group had been eyeing a turnover of around £6m for this year, with £1.4m of this from the Walsall operation.
Separately, KJB directors Egerton, Lisa Simmonds and Jonathon Woods established a new company – KJB Asset Holdings Ltd – on 22 August this year, according to Companies House.
The administrators had not confirmed at the time of writing whether KJB is still trading or if any assets had yet been sold, and Printweek could not reach KJB, whose phoneline was going unanswered.
