The firm was placed into administrative receivership with BDO Stoy Hayward on 8 November along with sheetfed printer The White Dove Press, which was also owned by Goodspeed and with whom it shares premises in Southend.

Perivan Group, also based in Southend, has bought The White Dove Press. White Dove sales director Trevor Buck is running the firm after the departure of previous incumbent George Pryde.

Perivan has bought the unencumbered assets, goodwill and work in progress of White Dove, which counts the Royal Mail among its clients.
But unsecured creditors have no prospect of recovering any money from either firm, according to BDO Stoy Hayward, and even preferential creditors will struggle to rescue any of their debts.

Perivan joint owner Philip Williams said his firm would retain the White Dove name and that it would continue to operate from the same premises. He said the deal was a case of two and two makes five, with Perivans eight-colour MAN Roland press supplementing The White Dove Press six-colour Komoris.

Dane said Essex Colours Southend site had been a profitable business despite the firm reporting a 47,500 pre-tax loss for the year to 31 December 1999. Expansion at its London office had hurt profits, he added.

The White Dove Press reported a pre-tax profit of 65,000 on sales of 5.45m for the year to 31 December 2000. But Goodspeed Communications reported a 150,000 loss on sales of 9.05m for the same period.

Goodspeed Communications, headed by chairman Leo Smith, instructed Begbies Traynor in Southend on 14 November to put it into voluntary liquidation. The holding company employed around 20 administration and driving staff whose contracts have now been terminated.

Case manager Lloyd Biscoe said a meeting of creditors had been convened for 5 December. He is not yet sure of the level of Goodspeed's debts.

Colourlink, the groups large-format digital arm, has been bought by a team headed by Damian Smith, Leo Smiths son.

Story by Gordon Carson