The company has been advertised for sale in the Financial Times and is understood to be in talks with a number of interested parties from the industry, and also with a listed non-print company.

The advertisement, which did not name Howitt, was placed by financial services company Kroll. The advertisement included a request for offers and proof of funding required as soon as possible.

Howitts future has been the subject of mounting speculation in recent months. Its much-vaunted Equator gravure project failed to get off the ground, and the team brought in to run the project have departed.

Last autumn the firm renegotiated its outstanding debt with its paper suppliers. Today (28 January) Antalis confirmed to PrintWeek that it had issued a winding up petition against the company for 50,000, relating to unpaid interest on its debt. Howitt had cleared the original debt, but failed to pay the interest.

Two other major merchants are also believed to be owed seven-figure sums by the company.

In November Howitt responded to a series of questions from PrintWeek about its future, and stated: The company is trading profitably and neither liquidation nor receivership, least of all a sale of the business are on the horizon, either now or in the long term.

The company has also been involved in litigation with the Guiton Group over the sale of Channel Print in March 2002.

Howitt chief executive James Elliot was unavailable for comment.

Howitts accounts for the year to 31 December 2002 are overdue, and have not been filed at Companies House. In 2001, the year of the buy-in management buy-out of the company from Communisis, it posted a pre-tax profit of 529,000 on sales of just under 35m. It employs around 300 staff.