Last week, the insolvency practitioner said 9,742 print companies faced "probable collapse and potential winding-up petitions", according to its Corporate Financial Stability Index (CFSI) figures.

However, printers have branded the report "irresponsible and inaccurate".

Cliffehanger managing director Nigel Cliffe claimed it was difficult to see the motivation for such a demoralising report. "To claim that nine out of 10 print companies are on the brink of collapse serves no useful purpose at all," he added.

Paul Holohan, Richmond Capital Partners chief executive, said that the statistics were "highly misleading".

He said: "This only serves to reinforce a jaundiced misconception amongst bankers and the financial sector that the print industry is not one to invest in.

"This is at a time when bankers are highly reticent in providing SMEs with the funding which they are supposed to do under the governments ‘bailout' - and which the print industry could really benefit from."

Alasdair Browne, director of Abbot Print, said things would be better for the industry if administrators of failed companies were obligated to publicly announce a failed company and have their fees and times supervised. "This would mean creditors would get more money, failed companies go, and sensible competition would not be beaten up on price by these failing companies," he added.

Formara managing director Fredie Kienzler said:  "We all know that printers have been having a hard time with falling revenue and increasing fixed costs, but the way to deal with this is not through suicidal price reductions."

A Tenon Recovery spokesman said: "The figures of the report are robust and, with our experience in the sector, we stand by our findings."

To find out more on the sustainability and effectiveness of print, see PrintWeek's 28pp supplement The Power of Print, free with this week's issue.

The supplement will also be sent to 10,000 decision makers in the marketing industry when it is mailed with the 16 December issue of Marketing magazine.