David Acland and Anthony Collier of FRP Advisory were appointed as joint administrators of Futurama Ltd on 5 May.  

It’s not clear who appointed the administrators, and FRP had not commented at the time of writing.

Yesterday, Printweek revealed that accounts for parent Rymack Sign Solutions, which trades as PFI Group, had stated that the financial viability of £9.45m turnover Futurama was the subject of a review at the behest of its funders, with Barclays holding a charge over the business.

PFI Group has made a £4.2m writedown because of the situation.

Its CEO Darren McMurray has not commented, and Printweek has been unable to reach anyone at Futurama.

A source close to the situation said: “I understand that there are four people still employed there but that the remainder of the employees never got paid in April or for the first ten days or so of May when they were told they were no longer employed.”

Futurama has operations in Fareham and Bradford.

Separately, the Works Manchester business acquired from Grafenia by Rymack Sign Solutions a year ago, is now under the control of a different company.

Holding company PFI 1 Ltd, incorporated on 8 February, took over from Rymack Sign Solutions as the entity with significant control of Works Manchester on the same date.

Darren McMurray is the sole director of PFI 1, while the entity with significant control is PFI Signs & Graphics, formerly PFI Finance.

PFI Group controls PFI Signs & Graphics, and is in turn controlled by Touchwood Holdings, which became the ultimate parent company of Rymack Sign Solutions following a restructure in June 2022. Darren and Nicola McMurray are its major shareholders.

Rymack is due to make a £766,250 deferred payment related to the Grafenia deal at the end of this month – the first of four annual instalments of that amount.