France headquartered Riccobono Group became Europe’s biggest gravure printer when it took over TSB last autumn.

The deal involved reducing the number of gravure presses from six to four and a restructure that cut 78 jobs.

Despite the downsizing, TSB filed an application to open insolvency proceedings with the district court in Mönchengladbach last week.

The court then appointed lawyer Dr Markus Kier from the Piepenburg Rechtsanwälte law firm the company's provisional insolvency administrator.

According to TSB, the bankruptcy filing was necessary because a loss in sales recorded last year due to ongoing restructuring efforts could not be compensated for due to rising energy, material and labour costs. 

However, a source at Riccobono Group told Printweek that Riccobono had been misinformed about TSB’s financial situation. The source said TSB had made “serious losses” at the end of last year, and Riccobono would be taking action against the former owners for prejudice and false information.

TSB, which employs 183 staff, will continue to trade during the insolvency proceedings.

Dr Kier commented: “We will now take a close look at everything in the next few days and weeks.

“Based on this, we then examine all the restructuring options available to us.”

The overall market for gravure printing has declined rapidly due to the reduction in long-run print work such as catalogues, supplements and flyers.