Peterborough Telegraph quoted Fisherprint chief executive Miles Fisher last month as saying that the business – based in the city – had been put into a “company voluntary administration”.
At the time, the printer’s website was still live but stated that orders were no longer being taken by the business but that TLC Signs and Banners was “business as usual”.
Signage specialist TLC, based on the same site, was acquired in late 2016 by the group, the same year Fisherprint invested in a five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster CX 102 press.
It has subsequently been confirmed on The Gazette that Fisherprint Ltd is now in liquidation, with Kirren Keegan and Tommaso Waqar Ahmadof Bailey Ahmad Business Recovery appointed on 2 August.
The Peterborough Telegraph article last month had reported that 31 staff were made redundant after Fisherprint ceased trading.
It quoted chief executive Miles Fisher as having said that the factors resulting in the closure of the business were “many and varied”, with Covid initially responsible for “a serious reduction in turnover that has never really fully recovered” alongside increasing materials and consumables costs over the last 12 months “that has kept the market depressed”.
Further business rates rises of 30% and soaring energy costs further contributed, with Fisher reporting a “massive spike in electricity charges” when the company’s fixed rate utilities charge ended last November, taking its monthly bill from around £6,500 a month to £40,000 in December alone.
During this time, Fisher said the directors took out personal loans of “hundreds of thousands of pounds, believing the business could trade through the turmoil”.
But he said it “became obvious” the business was unsustainable, due to the spiralling costs, and a decision was made to sell its freehold property and relocate to “smaller but adequate premises”.
However, while an exchange of contracts was arranged, multiple deadlines for the exchange passed and “we have had to make the desperately difficult decision to cease trading as of 14 July 2023”.
The business was established in 1947 and specialised in pharmaceutical and corporate print. In recent years it had switched to suppliers using carbon capture schemes, started offering a fulfilment service, and began manufacturing packaging.
Fisherprint’s website is now down, but its phone number listed on Google goes through to TLC Signs and Banners, which is open and trading as normal.
