Following the closure, chairman of B&T's owner Media & Print Investments (MPI), Mike Dolan, said he anticipates suppliers will receive payment, although he told BBC Somerset that workers "will be paid by the government".

Some 287 staff were made redundant by parent company MPI four days before payday, with many claiming they are also owed holiday and other annuity.

The action comes as details are emerging of the steps taken to close the company. Dolan said that ACAS and the Union were both 100% aware that the business would close if they did not settle the dispute and there was no realistic sign of that on the horizon by Friday.

He said: "We had a long scheduled MPI shareholders meeting late Friday which ran into the evening, where the shareholders needed to decide whether they were going to commit fresh funds to keep Butler & Tanner trading.

"Clearly the decision was made that, faced with a strike and with customers transferring their business overseas, there was no viable prospect of salvaging the business as a going concern."

However, Unite national officer Ann Field said: "The day before the place shut, he was telling ACAS by e-mail that he would be available for further talks at the weekend or this week. The dismissal letters must have been going out at the same time."

While Unite blames Dolan for the closure, he has claimed that an unofficial go slow had exacerbated the company's financial woes.

"We invested substantial funds and other businesses into the Frome site and had every intention of continuing to do so until the unofficial go slow caused output to fall to below 70% of the level it had been operating at.

"For example, BTP had orders for over £2m for April. It managed to output less than £650,000. Forward loadings for May, which were £2m when the strike was announced, had shrunk to £250,000, according to the figures we had at the shareholders meeting on Friday. There is no hidden agenda here," he added.

MPI had, according to Dolan, lined up a funding package, thought to total £1m, to invest in the business to keep it afloat. This funding was withdrawn following Unite's threat of action, Dolan said.

Details of the reasons behind the disagreement vary. Unite has told printweek.com that Dolan was pursuing an aggressive £1m cost reduction programme by reducing the amount of money paid for shifts and other economies and the breakdown came due to Dolan's refusal to abide by the National Agreement.

Dolan, however, has said that he was seeking to change the "archaic working practices" which rendered the business financially unviable.

He has pinned the blame for the closure on Unite for going public over private talks and claimed that the union cared more about its public perception than the employees at Frome.