Ian Prankhurst and Jeremy Bowden of Senate Recovery were appointed as liquidators of the Worcester-based company on 19 January 2011.

Bowden told PrintWeek that the company completed work in progress up to the point of liquidation but was loss making and unable to continue.

He said: "They closed the doors almost on the day of liquidation and made 12 employees redundant. They carried over a consignment of very expensive leases when the assets were bought from a previous liquidation and there was no access to capital in order to reinvest in digital kit."

Bowden added that, aside from the money owed to HSBC for the machinery, the company was paying most of its creditors up front so did not leave a large debt behind.

Parkes and fellow owner Roger Muir sold the business to Mike Dolan's Media and Print Investments in January 2008. When MPI collapsed, Parkes stepped back in and bought the equipment from the then administrator Harris Lipman.

Parkes was not contactable.