Philip Francis Duffy and Paul David Williams of Duff & Phelps were appointed as joint administrators of the Islington firm last Wednesday (7 December).
Reasons for the failure of the business and whether or not a buyer is being sought are as yet unknown.
A spokesperson for Duff & Phelps replied to PrintWeek’s questions with the following statement: “We are in the process of drafting the administrators’ proposals which will detail much of the information [requested] and be available in the public domain. I am afraid until then we are unable to provide any further information.”
The spokesperson added that anyone who believes they are a creditor of the company should contact Marcus Bassett at Duff & Phelps.
Face Creative Services had also not responded to numerous requests for comment at the time of writing.
On its website the firm claims it is the only printer in the south of the country to operate two Xeikon 5000 digital colour presses.
According to the company’s plant list, its other digital kit includes two HP Indigo 3600s while it also runs wide-format kit from HP, Ricoh and Canon. Two 12-colour Canon imagePrografs, a 24in iPF 6450 and a 60in iPF 9400, were installed in 2014.
In its accounts for the year ended 31 December 2015, the business had a turnover of £1.78m, up marginally from the £1.76m figure recorded in 2014. Its pre-tax profit for 2015 was £18,114, a recovery from 2014 when it had recorded a pre-tax loss of £54,705.
It is not yet known how many staff were working at the company at the time it was placed into administration.
According to its website, the firm originally opened as a phototypesetting business in London’s West End in 1968. It moved a number of times over the next 25 years before going through an MBO by the current owners, Brian and Colin Harding, in 1993 and later moving to Islington.
The company invested in its first digital press in 1996, after finding some of its traditional markets had eroded, and ordered a second within six months.
The firm is the latest significant digital printer based in the capital to go under, with local competitor 1st Byte, which also operated HP Indigos, having been placed into administration in October 2015.
