Sallyanne Pitt and Paul Clark, of insolvency practitioner MCR, were appointed joint administrators of MMC, which represented more than 135 clients and 400 magazines, last Friday (21 May).
Kirk Galloway, director and general manager of magazine printer Buxton Press, said the knock-on effect could affect publishers and printers alike.
"It could be expected that there will be significant bad debts and lost revenues for their publisher clients - both large and small - as well as the possibility of knock-on effects of bad debts for their associated printers should the publishers fail.
"It's a sad and unfortunate situation all round," Galloway added.
A spokesperson for a UK magazine and catalogue printer said that the administration of MMC would present certain companies with "tough challenges" and would likely have adverse effects on the industry.
MCR's Pitt said the company had a long history of distributing well-known magazine titles and collectables to the newstrade.
She added that the group's fall into administration was an "extremely unfortunate" situation.
"The company is not continuing to trade. Parties that have an interest in acquiring any of the company's assets should contact us without delay," she said.
Philippa Dempster, partner and head of business services at law firm Freeth Cartwright, claimed some publishers may have a clause, known as ‘Reservation of Title', built into their contract with a distributor.
This means that the publisher would have the right to reclaim the magazines and even distribute them themselves.
However, she added: "If the magazine has been sold, say, to Asda, [the clause] wouldn't allow them to get the magazines back if they'd already been sold on to a third party."
According to Dempster, in a situation where the contract involved MMC paying the printer directly, then the printer might be able to use the ‘Reservation of Title' clause. Alternatively, they might also be able to use a ‘Stop in Transit' clause, whereby the printer knows the magazines are already in transit and could have the lorry called back.
"However, it is probably too late now in this particular case," she said.
Fears of knock-on effects after MMC calls in the administrators
Printers and publishers have been warned that they could suffer "adverse effects" further down the line following the administration of The Magazine Marketing Company (MMC) - the UK's largest independent newstrade distributor.
