"From our point of view, it was a no brainer," said Autobond managing director John Gilmore. "The reason for buying the firm was that it had around 40 customers in the UK."

The deal, for an undisclosed sum, closed last Tuesday (17 January). It includes the name Lamtex, manufacturing kit, spares and intellectual property, such as drawings.

Following the purchase, Gilmore is considering resurrecting some machines from the Lamtex range, including the Nova and Opal laminators. "Some of the smaller models might be quite good for us," said Gilmore.

"We [also] have comprehensive manufacturing facilities at our Heanor factory and with the drawings... we hope to be able to make all spare parts for the existing Lamtex range."

Although the deal didn't include staff, Autobond is trying to track down and recruit "one or two" of the failed firm's service staff.

Autobond has already secured tie-ups with a number of Lamtex's distributors, including firms in Australia, New Zealand Singapore, and South Africa.

Joint administrators Michael White and John Russell of The P&A Partnership were appointed to Sheffield-based Lamtex on 24 November 2005.