In October last year former general manager of Harveys UK, John Ramage, founded newco CGD and acquired the company's shares from co-directors Thomas Dalgleish and Peter McCraw who then stepped down making Ramage sole director.
Ramage, now director of Harveys UK, carried out a number of cost cutting measures which included the redundancies of seven members of staff. But the company continued to trade at a loss resulting in the comany being placed in administration with Rimes & Co on 26 of November, on the same day it was sold to CGD.
The subsequent administrator report, filed at the end of January, revealed that Harveys had racked up debts of around £482,224 minus assets to around 100 unsecured creditors.
Additionally HMRC is owed £150,000 while a floating charge against the company of £340,037 is owed to sales invoice and asset finance firm Allied Commercial Factors.
Following the deal 39 members of staff transferred under TUPE to the newly registered company, which continues to trade as Harveys UK, from its Loanhead registered office.
According to the administrator's report, Harveys UK's chattel assets were subject to a finance agreement with County Asset Finance (part of County Finance Group), which had been pursuing the company for the monthly repayments it was unable to pay.
County Finance Group said it had acquired "hundreds of thousands of pounds of printing equipment" from Harveys and will lease it back to the company over a four-year period.
County Finance Group’s Darren Shaw said that although deemed unpopular by many, there were clear cases when pre-pack deals were appropriate and helped to save jobs.
He added: "Print is having a tough time at the moment and no one is particularly enjoying business. There is an awful lot of this type of deal going on purely and simply so that they can continue to trade and it often helps to give a struggling business a fresh pair of eyes.
"This was an opportunity for a failing business to continue to trade. We needed to make sure everything was clear going forwards and to orchestrate the deal so that the remaining workforce was protected," he said.
"John presented us with a strong business plan and restructure strategy. He is a competent businessman and we are confident that under him the company has a strong future," added Shaw.
Ramage was unavailable for comment.
