Registered as Wirral Continuous Ltd and based at leased premises in Bromborough, the business had been bought by co-owner Kevin Hickey together with Chris Riley in October 2018. They acquired the busienss from former Callprint managing director Steve Cheek, whose brief ownership of the business became mired in controversy.

Hickey told Printweek: “We posted a loss last year after Covid and unfortunately then credit limits were cut by some of the paper companies.

“Being a trade house, we were working off our bottom line and the paper [prices were increasing]. We were going through the paper [and credit] that we used to use in a month in less than two weeks.”

Hickey said one paper company had reduced WirralCo’s monthly credit from £40,000 to £8,000, while another had slashed it from £15,000 to £5,000. He added that while paper prices were quickly increasing, the other paper companies did not increase their credit limits.

Hickey had also been off ill for a couple of months from just prior to Christmas 2021.

“On my return at the tail end of February, we hadn’t picked up sufficiently and we couldn’t match some of the [online] printing platforms with prices, and with the credit being slashed by the paper companies, it made it nigh on impossible for us to continue trading.”

He added: “The first thing I did on my return was to look for potential buyers or investors for WirralCo – the company had been trading for over 33 years and had 19 employees plus myself and Chris. But unfortunately, our financial year ran from March to March, which meant it couldn’t get any worse when Covid hit because that started in March [2020]. Being a trade printer, all of our clients closed or were working from home.”

The business closed its doors at the end of March, with all 21 staff – who were paid up to 31 March – made redundant. It subsequently entered creditors’ voluntary liquidation on 23 May, with Jason Mark Elliott and Craig Johns of Cowgill Holloway Business Recovery in Bolton appointed as the liquidators.

“Each member of staff came up to shake our hand [on the last day] and to tell us we couldn’t have done any more. We really did try, and they were a great bunch of people. It was a very sad and emotional day for everybody when the doors closed,” Hickey said.

Late last year WirralCo installed a used high-spec RMGT SRA1 LED-UV press.

“It had hit the ground running – it was an absolutely phenomenal piece of kit but some of our clients didn’t open back up after Covid,” said Hickey.

The business had a turnover of £1.4m prior to the pandemic but had since seen this drop to £800,000.

The company’s unencumbered assets, including several finishing machines, are set for auction via Robson Kay next Tuesday (21 June). This will take place at the WirralCo site.

According to its statement of affairs, filed at Companies House, WirralCo had a £137,000 CBILS loan via Close Brothers, plus another £56,000 loan from the finance company, as well as a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan from Lloyds.

The company’s estimated deficiency is just over £1m, with trade and expense creditors owed nearly £169,000 in total.