Administrator Tenon Recovery cut 83 jobs from the 108 staff at Blackpool-based Grasmere Press, with eight redundancies being made at its GDI site in Leeds.

GPMU deputy general secretary Tony Burke said he was very disappointed the business had gone into administration. This had left its members concerned about wages and redundancy entitlement.

"Once again we have a situation where a company has virtually gone overnight, and we are having to fight on our members' behalf," he said. Burke said he was aware of the interest in the business and that he hoped it could be sold as a going concern. A spokesman for Tenon said it had received more than 20 expressions of interest following its move into administration.

The spokesman said that Grasmere Press was finishing a number of contracts while the possibility of the sale of the business as a going concern was being explored. Discussions were also at an advanced stage with an interested party for GDI, with business card and badge specialist BIG Group having expressed interest.

A spokesman for BIG said the group was keen to look at GDI's technologies, and was interested in buying the company. BIG Group was bought by US-listed company the Brady Corporation in September last year.

Story by Andy Scott