Administrators from Kroll Advisory were appointed to the business on 23 January.

Joint administrator Paul Williams told Printweek: “The business was severely impacted as a result of the pandemic and despite the sustained efforts of management to return the business to its previous financial position, the levels of debt within the company, which built up during the pandemic, ultimately proved unaffordable.”

Williams said: “Following a short marketing period the joint administrators have successfully completed a sale of the Box Making division to an entity owned by Pureprint, saving the jobs of all those staff located at Crayford and preserving the legacy business.”

Printweek understands the Crayford operation employs around five people directly, along with indirect staff as required based on workloads. The sale was for the business and assets.

The 55 employees at Screaming Colour’s main Bermondsey site have been made redundant, and the operation has been closed down. 

“Crayford is a more specialised part of the business and for that reason it generated significantly more interest than the broader business,” Williams added, and said multiple offers had been received for the boxes wing. 

“A number of players wanted to diversify or expand their activities.” 

Screaming Colour offered creative print and bespoke box making services, which also had a dedicated website. The business was established in 1994. 

Pureprint Group is a Top 100 print business with multiple operations spanning litho, digital and wide-format printing. It had sales of £52.4m in its most recent financial report, for calendar year 2021.