The NOI was filed yesterday (29 April) by solicitors Blake Morgan, with three insolvency practitioners from RSM UK Restructuring in Manchester set to be appointed by Celloglas’ directors.

Celloglas sales director Steve Middleton told Printweek the NOI was a procedure related to the upcoming sale: “We have a preferred offer from a third party and this is the prelude to the deal being completed in the near future,” he said.

Celloglas operates from three sites in Reading, Leeds and Leicester and employs 77 staff.

Its business and assets were put up for sale earlier this month, in a fast-track process that appeared likely to involve some form of administration.  

The sale memorandum issued by Lambert Smith Hampton for ‘Project Star’ stated that “a challenging economic environment has resulted in a requirement to explore an accelerated sale of the company’s business and assets”.

It said Celloglas had sales of £9.8m in calendar year 2023 and made a net loss of around £100,000, but was predicted to return to profitability this year on increased sales of £11.2m.

Celloglas offers a range of premium decorative finishing services including laminating, foiling, embossing and varnishing as well as special effect finishes such as scratch ’n sniff and textured haptics. It also owns the trademarked Mirri brand of reflective substrates.

Its customer base includes a raft of magazine publishers that often turn to the company for the production of special effect covers for premium issues.

However, industry sources said that cost-cutting by publishers had reduced the amount of ‘specials’ being produced in recent times.