PwC has also made further redundancies at the group. Polestar Chantry in Wakefield has borne the brunt, with another 66 workers laid off, taking the total job losses at that site to 137. PwC also said that 13 additional redundancies had been made at Sheffield.

Last week 30 employees were made redundant at book printer Polestar Wheatons in Exeter.

Just under 300 jobs have now been lost across the Polestar businesses in administration – Polestar UK Print (Sheffield, Chantry and Bicester) and Polestar Stones-Wheatons – and at the £216m-turnover group’s head office in Dunstable.

The group employed around 1,500 staff prior to its failure, including the Polestar Applied Solutions business that is not part of the administration.

Joint administrator Zelf Hussain said: “We still believe that there is a strong underlying business within the companies and we are focused on doing all we can to preserve value and maintain the business while we look to achieve a sale.”

Walstead Investments and Prinovis had previously confirmed their potential interest in parts of the group.

YM Group, the owner of York Mailing, Pindar, and Lettershop Group, had also been mooted as a potential buyer for some of Polestar’s assets, such as the 64pp short-grain press at Sheffield. There are now rumours that YM could potentially be interested in the Bicester and Chantry sites.

This would involve YM making a major move into the publication printing sector. The firm has declined to comment.

A source close to the situation said the possible permutations for the sale were also highly complex, as it appears unlikely that a single buyer would want to take over the whole group.

The theoretical options included: all of Sheffield; Sheffield gravure only; Sheffield web only; Bicester; Bicester and Stones; Bicester and Chantry; Bicester and Chantry and Sheffield web; Bicester and Sheffield web; Stones; Wheatons.