Colin Roberts, managing director at BFE, said he intentionally avoided taking the company through administration before he bought it.

"Please do not confuse this merger with the well publicised pre-pack deals that have blighted our industry," he said. "I could easily have just allowed it to fold, leave all debts unpaid and let the employees go to the government for their redundancy money. That is what everybody else in our Industry seems to do. But, I do have very strong opinions on pre-packs and I prefer to do these things honourably."

Harlequin will relocate to BFE's Temple Cloud factory and its managing director Tony Roberts will join the Bristol company's management team, while factory manager Mark Heard will also join the company.

Harlequin specialised in short-run continuous forms, cut sets and pads, an area that BFE has moved away from in recent years.

However, customers were telling BFE that its prices were too expensive on short-run products. Colin Roberts said the Harlequin acquisition "should put us back in range for those smaller orders".

He added: "The only change that BFE customers will see is a dramatic price reduction in short-run forms as we will be pitching the prices at the cheaper Harlequin rates.

"Harlequin customers should be interested in our long-run production facilities and our range of more sophisticated products. Members of staff who are not joining us from Cornwall have been properly compensated and all suppliers of Harlequin have my personal promise that BFE will honour any outstanding invoices."