According to filed documents, Martha Thompson and Francis Newton, of BDO’s London and Leeds offices respectively, were appointed joint administrators on 22 May.

As previously reported, on the same day Paragon bought Celerity Information Services, ORM and Graft Services as well as the order book and customer base of direct mail operation Howard Hunt (City).

However, upon BDO’s appointment Howard Hunt (City) ceased trading and 250 staff were made redundant.

PrintWeek understands that the only staff remaining on site are in the warehouse, helping clients retrieve completed jobs and WIP.

According to sources close to the situation, there was not sufficient cash in the business, which had been battling a credit crunch with lender Santander prior to its collapse, for the administrators to continue to trade the £53m-turnover direct mail specialist.

As a result, after securing the pre-pack sale of the sister businesses, the administrators' focus was immediately placed on realising the value of unencumbered assets and the debtor book.

BDO was unavailable for comment at the time of writing and CEO Luke Pigott has not responded to requests for comment.