Ball was forced to close the business on Wednesday afternoon, making all staff redundant and leaving some work unfinished, because the company could not afford to pay staff wages.

He said: "There are always outstanding orders and jobs in progress when you get these sorts of things and you can't complete everything."

However, Ball told PrintWeek that he had not given up hope of selling the business as a going concern.

He said: "At the minute, because we're only one full day away from when we closed the business, we effectively have got a going concern still; although day-by-day that disappears.

"Obviously if we sell a business, any purchaser is going to want people, and very urgently, so there would be opportunities for people to come back if they wanted to do that.

"I think we've got a good chance but I'm not going to count my chickens before they hatch and I can't give anybody any guarantees."

However, prospective buyer Pepper Communications, which pulled out of acquiring TL Visuals because of the company's acquired debts, said the odds were against such a sale.

Commercial director Jude Whitford said: "That opportunity is gone. It went the moment they [ceased trading] at 2.00 on Wednesday afternoon and immediately made everyone redundant and didn't even finish the work in progress."

Ball confirmed that TL Visuals' shareholders were in discussions with various parties "for a little while" prior to the company being placed in administration with regards to selling the shares in the company.

He said: "We're talking to various parties now about selling the business. Yes, the directors were in discussions with people this week – for several months they were in discussions with Pepper."

Pepper has revealed that it is now in talks with the administrator regarding certain assets, as well as with some of the former staff.

Commercial director Jude Whitford said: "We're looking at employing the sales staff and some sales support staff as an administration office in Bristol, with manufacturing in Plymouth.

"The offer's on the table for some of the assets, which would be installed at a plant in Plymouth, and we're waiting for the administrator to come back."