The 15-staff dealer of used bookbinding and finishing kit went into administration on 4 April and shut down after nearly a quarter of a century in business.
Director Stephen Lamb blamed reduced margins in the machinery industry for the collapse of his business in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. It could not sustain its overheads, he said.
Speaking shortly after it fell into administration last week, Lamb said that he hoped the Atlas name might be able to return as a leaner operation and yesterday he confirmed that a new company would trade as Atlas Machinery and was due to be officially up and running around May.
“The overwhelming response has been fantastic, from colleagues and customers who recognise the industry is facing unprecedented, tough times at the moment.
“But we are not shouting about it from the rooftops just yet, we are working for the administrator and getting rid of the final elements of Atlas' stock, loading and shipping it out.
“The new set-up will be just me and my son and a couple of employees; a small team compared to what we were before – a leaner, meaner, fitter organisation.
“We will be doing the same on the back of a name that has come out unscathed and unsullied. We did the right thing and left no one in a life-changing situation with their businesses or houses, etc.
“We will continue to trade in the same kind of machinery but in a different way in terms of the amount of stock held and things like that.
“We have learned lessons from this. The days of companies holding lots of stock, engineers and big marketing teams are over.”
Atlas Machinery started in 1991 offering the bookbinding and finishing industries a used machinery service. In latter years it complemented this by the inclusion of sheetfed offset presses.
It supplied kit including Muller Martini, Kolbus, Wohlenburg, Sitma, Stahl, Polar and MBO. One of its biggest recent deals was with York Mailing last August for binding kit.
However, turnover tumbled from £4.5m in its heyday to £2.3m more recently, which “wasn't enough to sustain the operation”. It was a planned closure with the bank its biggest creditor, Lamb said.
A statement from the administrator said: “Atlas Machinery ceased trading on 4 April 2016 after being placed in the hands of joint administrators Bob Maxwell and Lee Lockwood of Begbies Traynor.
“Eddisons are currently managing the disposal of the assets and anyone interested should contact Jason Pinder or Richard Temple of Eddisons on 0113 243 0101.
“There is no transfer of the business, but there is a possibility that one of the directors may launch his own new venture.
“All staff were paid until the end of March and are now claiming redundancy payments through the Redundancy Service in the usual way.”
