Greg Palfrey and David Blenkarn from accountancy and investment management group Smith & Williamson were appointed as liquidators of the Basildon, Essex-based business on 31 July, the same day as the deadline the company was given to bring its payment arrears to HM Revenue & Customs up to date.
The firm had entered a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) in May 2013. It had agreed to make monthly contributions totaling £180,000 over a five-year period, of which £71,250 had been paid by 7 May 2015.
An annual CVA Supervisor’s Progress Report that was published on Companies House on 31 July, referring to the period between 8 May 2015 and 7 May 2015, said the company had outstanding returns and arrears due to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), which it had failed to address.
In the report, supervisor Ian Michael Rose said: “Due to the failure of the company to keep up to date with the returns and payments due to HM Revenue & Customers, the CVA is in breach.
“Therefore, a formal notice of breach was issued to the company on 1 June 2015 at the request of HMRC. The company has until 31 July 2015 to bring the returns and arrears up to date, which is currently being monitored."
Liquidator Palfrey said: “Geneva was a well-established printing firm but was unable to recover from a significant bad debt suffered in early 2013.
“Geneva's orders were often low-margin and on-demand, at highly competitive prices; this eroded profitability, further compounding cashflow problems.
“It is always a sad day when you have to formally end a well-established company but the business was no longer commercially viable and so was left with no alternative.
“As part of this difficult process, regrettably, 13 staff have been made redundant."
The business specialised in a variety of wide-format and litho print including posters, packaging, POS, direct mail and folded products such as maps and posters.
It operated print machinery including a six-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 102, a two-colour Heidelberg GTO 52, a four-colour Manroland 800 and a Roland DG UV machine.
It also ran finishing equipment including guillotines, folders, stitchers, drills, cutters, shrink wrappers and collators.
Details of the sale of any assets and whether any equipment has been sold on so far are not yet known by PrintWeek.
