Directors at the Belvedere, Kent-based business gave staff notice of its imminent closure on 12 August and told them they would no longer be paid from that date onwards. The firm then closed its doors on 28 August, at which point all remaining work in progress had been completed.
Robert Day and Lee Cotton from Robert Day & Company were appointed joint liquidators of the business on the same day.
In February, Europa lost two of its biggest accounts following the departure of a senior member of staff.
“The last six months have been very difficult,” said Kevin Ibrahim, who founded the business 26 years ago, but partially retired due to health problems two years ago and handed the reins over to his son Darren and daughter Charleigh.
“The banks had been working with us and we’d just about turned it around but then one of the banks got cold feet and stopped funding us. We’d had a steady month in July and started August well – we had a full order book on the day we shut the doors.”
Based in a 1,950sqm unit, the business offered litho and digital printing, direct mail and design services, and produced items including business cards, flyers, calendars, brochures, booklets, stationery, posters and leaflets. It served clients ranging from print management companies to end users.
The firm had 24 staff at the time of its closure and was turning over around £2.2m. Ibrahim said around 20 of the staff have now secured new jobs elsewhere, many of which Europa has helped to facilitate.
“We had a very emotional goodbye to our staff, some of whom had worked for us for over 20 years,” said Ibrahim.
“The day after we told staff they would not be getting paid anymore, 12 of them came in to clear the backlog of work off their own back.”
Joint liquidator Day told PrintWeek the company’s assets will be disposed of via a sale process.
While further details of the sale and a full list of the assets were not disclosed, Ibrahim said they included a Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 75, understood to be a five colour, and an HP Indigo. The company also operated a Ricoh printer that was on finance and is not part of the sale.
