RSM Tenon was appointed to the Tonbridge-based trade printer last Thursday (3 February) and is currently looking for buyers for the goodwill of the business.

Marsh said that the company "simply ran out of cash".

"We were squeezed both ways and maybe we tried to grow too quickly. Perhaps we were too focused on growing the business when we also should have been growing our sales," he added.

Turnover at Prometheus Press was £3m in 2010, which Marsh acknowledged "should have been higher", with the company previously targeting the £5-6m mark this year.

"I apologise to our staff, our creditors and our customers. We gave 110% but sadly that wasn’t good enough," added Marsh.

Early last year, the company completed a six-month, £2.5m capital equipment investment programme.

The Kent-based business had consolidated its print facilities into a single 2,790sqm facility following the installation of a secondhand Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 74 10-colour perfector, a new Suprasetter 75 platesetter and the refurbishment of the company’s two Speedmaster 74 presses.

In late January 2010, the 36-staff business also took delivery of an HP Indigo 7000 digital colour press, several months after it bolstered its wide-format division with an Agfa Anapurna M2 UV inkjet printer.