The business entered liquidation last Tuesday (14 January), only a month after its owner told Printweek that the business was undergoing a corporate restructure.
Lee De’ath and Tom Gardiner of Begbies Traynor (Central) in Colchester were appointed as joint liquidators of Ancient House Press Ltd.
The failure of the business was attributed by a spokesperson for Ancient House Press to a “steady decline in sales” that resulted in the company experiencing “significant financial challenges” that placed “significant pressure” on trading operations, “meaning the business was no longer viable”.
According to the Ipswich web and sheetfed printer’s statement of affairs, published in the last few days at Companies House, its assets subject to fixed charge included book debts with a value of £1.96m, estimated to realise £1.37m.
But Novuna (Hitachi) is listed as being owed nearly £1.79m, with Allison Berry and Michael Underdown, who were joint managing directors of Ancient House, owed £440,000 between them.
Plant, machinery and equipment with a book value of £1.68m was estimated to realise £430,000, but Close Brothers Asset Finance was owed £693,000.
There was uncertainty in the report over the realisation of various assets subject to floating charge, including stock, fixtures and fittings, a VAT refund of over £150,000, nearly £1.12m attributed to RDCP Group Ltd, which acquired Ancient House Printing Group in 2021, and £4.07m attributed to holding company AHP Print Holdings Ltd.
The estimated total assets available for preferential creditors was stated as nil.
In the summary of liabilities to preferential creditors, 41 employees were owed more than £27,000, while the HMRC was owed over £100,000. The total assets available to unsecured creditors was also stated as nil.
Among the unsecured non-preferential claims (excluding any shortfall to floating charge holders), trade creditors were owed over £2.5m – with several paper companies among the hardest hit – while 60 employees were owed nearly £768,000.
The number of staff redundancies has not yet been confirmed and Begbies Traynor had not commented at the time of writing.
According to the plant list on its website, Ancient House Press operated two Komori System 38S 16pp webs and a Komori GL1040P 10-colour convertible perfecting sheetfed press with Mabeg RS 104 reel sheeter, plus a wide range of finishing kit.
In its most recently filed full accounts at Companies House, made up to 28 February 2023, sales at Ancient House Press Ltd were up by nearly 27% to £16.32m.
