According to the High Court Index the application was made by the company directors today.

An administrator will be appointed to the East London-based company on Monday.

Alito Color Group managing director David Collins told PrintWeek that he could not comment on the situation at this point in time. But he added the most important thing was to safeguard as many jobs as possible.

Alito Color Group is wholly owned by Alito Investments limited, which is jointly owned by chairman and founder Terry Brady and joint managing director David Collins.

Terry Brady is also the sole shareholder of web printer Alito web, which was formerly Lexicon – the company set up by Andrew Parker to acquire the assets of TPF's Northampton print site and York Mailing's Centre Web site.