Castle Colour Print went into liquidation with Gareth Rusling and John Russell of the P&A Partnership on Tuesday 8 February.

Rusling said: "Castle Colour Print had cashflow problems which were compounded by a difficult trading time over Christmas."

Company director and owner John Hutchinson has been unavailable for comment since announcing the closure to his staff on 19 January.

However, employees have told the Darlington and Stockton Times of their devastation at the move. The newspaper also reported that pension contributions had not been paid for a year.

An employee told the newspaper: "The employees walked in and found out, there and then, that it had gone. There was no warning from the director to the staff at all. We have been told the bank pulled the plug but I heard from the company that dealt with the receivership that it was the director who chose not to go on because there was no money to pay wages and staff."

"Neither contribution (from employee or employer) has been going in for the past year. We are going to have to try to claim them back from the receivers or take legal action. We thought they were going in. We found out from someone who said payments had possibly not been going over. When we all checked, it came to light."