The ex-employee, whose identity is known to PrintWeek but who has asked to remain anonymous for the time being, initially set a target of £5m, but revised this down to £500,000 in the hope that it would be a more achievable sum.

"I couldn't just see the business disappear overnight and I have friends whose pitches have gone viral, so I thought let's give it a go to try to save the business,” he told PrintWeek.

“After some feedback I decided to lower the amount which would enable people not to be put off by such a large target and to enable overfunding. I am hoping to be able to enlist a suitably experienced management team if it's successful."

The project, ‘Buyback Paperlinx UK and help to save 700 UK jobs’ is listed on the Crowdfunder website. It had received pledges for £65,162 at the time of writing and has until 19 May to reach the £500,000 target.

Administrators from Deloitte laid off 693 Paperlinx UK employees and closed 14 out of 19 branches last week.

The companies placed into administration by Deloitte includes a number of notable names in UK paper merchanting. The complete list is:

Contract Paper

Howard Smith Paper

Howard Smith Paper Group

The M6 Paper Group

The Paper Company

PaperlinX (Europe)

PaperlinX (UK)

PaperlinX Brands (Europe)

PaperlinX Investments (Europe)

PaperlinX Services (Europe)

PaperlinX Treasury (Europe)

Pinnacle Film & Board Sales

Precision Publishing Papers

Robert Horne Group

Robert Horne UK

Sheet & Roll Convertors

Trade Paper

W Lunnon & Company