At the start of this new millennium Bemrose, as was, began a new era when Graham Bennington led an MBO of selected parts of its print operations leaving the plc part to focus on promotional products, and Charles Letts with the diaries bit.

Now I'm wondering whether BemroseBooth will make it into this century's second decade. Things seem to have been going downhill for the company ever since it was acquired by Appleton at the tail end of 2003, a move that also saw Bennington's retirement. At the time BB posted a £4.3m profit on £62m sales. Two years later that profit had turned into a £700k loss on the same sort of turnover, and by the end of 2007 Appleton was touting the company for sale having decided it wasn't quite the strategic fit initially envisaged.

In the absence of the queue of eager trade buyers, the company was eventually sold to American Industrial Acquisition Corporation, a investment business that describes its modus operandi as "providing large corporate sellers a rapid, reliable exit for challenging operational units" citing a general target of "distressed manufacturing firms". How depressing to think of BemroseBooth fitting into this description.

When AIAC pitched up last summer the talk was of growing through acquisition, but that's not how things seem to be panning out. Calendar production has already been outsourced, and now its secure Derby facility is up for sale. The latest figures show an operating loss of just under £1.5m on sales of £56m, along with a pre-tax loss of £2.6m. I'm not entirely sure how putting an investment banker in charge will help matters, either.

How did things go backwards, so quickly? And how will an expensive move make sense at this time? I'm saddened and mystified about the way things are turning out for a company that seemed to have perfectly reasonable prospects not that long ago.