Joint administrators Andrew Pear and Michael Solomons of BM Advisory were appointed on 26 October and the Andover, Hampshire-based printer ceased to trade on the same day. All 53 employees were made redundant.
Pear told PrintWeek the company was mothballed for a week while a buyer was sought.
Advertisements were placed in the Financial Times and Evening Standard newspapers but did not garner a response.
However, on 3 November DMA Print Limited's parent company Thames Print, bought the customer list, chattel assets, stock and "any equity in leasing agreements" of DMA Print from the administrators. The company's assets did not include any leasehold property or printing assets, which were held by a separate company in the Thames Print Group.
In a statement the company said it planned to start trading again “as soon as is practical” this week.
DMA Print was incorporated on 24 April 2014 before acquiring Advent Colour and its parent company Advent Digital Imaging out of administration a week later.
Exactly six months later Thames Print was incorporated before acquiring the then £8m-turnover, 80-staff DMA Print on 31 October.
Murray Booker and Angus Steel became directors that day and DMA Print directors Michael Ackerman, Adam De Marco, Alan De Marco and Daniel De Marco resigned. Steel also resigned this year while Booker remained the sole director of both Thames Print and DMA Print until the latter’s administration.
According to the statement from the board of DMA Print: “The business had from the start been loss-making and despite a significant injection of capital by the new owners in December 2014 and a rationalisation of the business, events conspired against a successful turnaround.
“Recent investigations in the months prior to the administration have uncovered financial irregularities dating back as far as 2014, which are now subject to a separate investigation and potential legal redress."
The statement said that the situation "led to an obvious loss of confidence by the charge-holders of the company". As a result the company was placed into administration.
Dan De Marco said he was not aware of any financial irregularities while he was commercial director of DMA Print. He told PrintWeek that such allegations could be no more than "a vicious rumour".
"I've got no idea what that is about. I would deny any allegations. The firm was professionally audited and we were regularly inspected by the bank and when Advent went into administration everyone was paying up front while we were there," he said.
After resigning as directors of DMA Print, Dan De Marco and his father Alan De Marco continued to work at Thames Print, before leaving in February. Dan De Marco and his brother Adam De Marco started new company Ostrich Media Management "from scratch" on 16 September 2014.
Dan De Marco added: "We're totally disassociated from [DMA Print] now and we are just getting on with our lives. I think we're being used as a scapegoat for whatever reason."
The DMA Print board statement said that the new company has the support of all previous charge-holders, understood to be Resolve Capital and Bibby Financial Services, and clients, and that the business was "forecast to be profitable from day one".
Pear added: “We were pleased to have achieved a sale of the assets of DMA Print and we hope that many of the workforce who lost their jobs over the past few months will soon find employment within a re-capitalised business on a much sounder financial footing.
He added: “The administrators will be conducting an investigation into the allegations of financial impropriety and, if appropriate, we will issue legal proceedings.”
