David Gilbert and Simon Girling from BDO were appointed as joint administrators yesterday (26 June).

The 267-employee business had been in a state of limbo for more than a month. Attempts by its management to rescue the business via a CVA deal crumbled last week.

The formal move into administration will at least mean that employees who were also left up in the air will now have the necessary legal formalities to claim redundancy and other payments from the state.

BDO is now attempting to sell the company’s assets in situ, according to a statement from Girling, who said: "Regrettably, it has not been possible for MPG Printgroup to avoid administration, nor to preserve the business as a going concern.

"Our objective as administrators will be to secure sales of its state of the art printing equipment, ideally in-situ, and to maximise recoveries for the Company’s creditors. Suppliers or customers with any queries should contact my team for further information."

Any hopes of resurrecting the business appear slight. Gerald White, managing director at book printer Berforts, described the five-week delay since the group effectively ceased trading as "the biggest cock-up since the Titanic went down".

"There are no customers, and no staff. I can’t see how there’s any business left. If they’d tried to sell it in the first week maybe there’d have been a chance, but there’s no chance now," White said.

PrintWeek understands there is interest in the King’s Lynn equipment, and that a deal could be done by the end of the week.

CPI, St Ives and Berforts have been mooted as possible buyers for some of MPG’s kit.

Most of the group’s newest equipment is owned by finance providers.

MPG had sites in Bodmin, Cambridge and King’s Lynn. It appears that the group, which had turnover of circa £24m, over-extended after embarking on an ambitious expansion plan that included a major investment in digital production kit from HP, Kodak, Timsons and Kolbus at King’s Lynn and a new site in Cambridge set up on the back of a deal with Cambridge University Press.