Barry Lewis and Freddy Khalastchi, of Harris Lipman, were appointed as joint administrators on 26 May. This followed Howitt buying the loss-making print and direct mail business last October.

Lewis said that, at the time, the Howitt board had been confident it could turn the business around but, despite refinancing and redundancies, the losses continued.

"Due to lack of investment by previous owners (Vertis) and high overheads."

He added that the position of all creditors had been "protected", which means no creditors are given preferential treatment over others.

Harris Lipman has already sold some machinery from the Croydon site and appointed sales agent Edward Symmonds & Partners to sell the businesses remaining assets. Work in progress has been transferred to Howitts Nottingham plant.

According to the firms chief executive Nick Dixon, the business had continued to make "unacceptable losses", despite Howitt removing 2.4m of annual costs.

The latest figures for Olwen to 31 December 2005 show a pre-tax loss of 2.5m (2004: 1.74m) on sales of 18.8m (2004: 21.5m).

Olwen timeline
1982 Olwen founded by Peter Rivett
1997 Olwen sold to Big Flower (subsequently rebranded as Vertis)
4 October 2005 Vertis sells UK DM and fulfilment arms to acquisition vehicle Overgoal
24 October 2005 Howitt acquires Olwen and VMT from Overgoal
26 May 2006 Olwen placed into administration