The new operation is headed by Jo Williams, Paul Reeve and Martin Dockray, managing director, business development director and direct mail senior sales manager respectively of the old firm.

"However, there's no involvement by the old owners, the Fullalove family," said commercial director of the new firm, Reeve.

The deal went through last Monday (18 April), following talks with customers, suppliers and administrators at Deloitte. "It's good news in today's print industry where so many companies go and don't come back," said Reeve. "We've saved 98 jobs and we intend to be a very effective force in the market."

Although he didn't want to expand on the reasons for CP3i's fall into administration last month, Reeve said: "The problem with the old company was that it was very focused on a high turnover target and it tended to focus too much on that rather than profit."

CP3i recorded a turnover of 12.9m with a pre-tax loss of 1.5m in 2003. "Going forward it will be a smaller company focusing on profitable business rather than just chasing turnover," said Reeve.

The firm will continue to be active in four "major" sectors: direct mail, commercial print, game cards and greetings cards.

Story by Darryl Danielli