Insolvency practitioner Tim Close of Milsted Langdon was instructed by the directors to liquidate the company on Friday (21 January); however, he was subsequently replaced on the request of JF Print's debenture holder, Cattles Invoice Finance.

Close said: "[Following my appointment] I contacted the debenture holder, who chose to appoint their own administrator."

The book printer is currently not answering its phone and managing director Peter Leach has not been available for comment.

An industry source said: "The fact is B-format paperbacks is a fierce market to be in and I would have thought the industry would have reacted very sharply to a new entrant, while the market is also coming under attack from ebooks.

"The reality is there will be fewer and fewer suppliers and those that remain will be the ones with the largest scale."

JF print became the only long-grain web offset B-format book printer in the UK last August.