The Kent-based merchant stockist, formed in 2000, went into administrative receivership on 13 May and insolvency and business recovery practitioner Smith & Williamson was appointed to oversee its affairs.

Tony Murphy, a partner with Smith & Williamson, said the reason for the appointment had been due to the company suffering from bad debts and the current state of the print and paper industry.

It is understood that Ice Paper's bad debts were in excess of 1m.

Employee shareholders in the company had personally funded the losses, Murphy said, investing some 1.5m in share capital.

A deal for a sale of the business was completed "a day or so after my appointment," Murphy said.

All jobs had been saved at the company, and Murphy said the business was now run by a team headed by its former managing director, Chris O'Sullivan.

While the deal to buy the company was being put together, Murphy said the company had changed its name to IP Receivables. However he stressed there was nothing unusual in this, and that it was purely a technicality. "Part of the MBO deal was that they bought the name," he said.

The new company, also called Ice Paper, was registered on 27 April according to Companies House records.

The former Ice Paper's last set of filed accounts to 31 December 2001 show pre-tax losses of 936,517 against a turnover of 9.3m.

Story by Andy Scott