The asset disposal specialists said that the recent sale of machinery from failed mailing house Colin Clapp and its sister company LDH Mailing, received high levels of interest from both the UK and abroad.

King Sturge's head of P&M Spencer Chapman said: "For an auction of this size we were expecting around half that number. But I think in the current climate a lot of people are looking at added value and instead of buying new they are looking at auctions instead."

The majority of the machinery was sold to the UK, although China, France and Spain will all see equipment heading in their direction. Around 60 of those that signed up were successful.

Included in the auction was a Heidelberg SM74-10P 10 colour press, a Heidelberg GTOV-52 four colour press, CMC Pratica inserting & wrapping line, Polar 115 guillotine flowline, Stahl Mailmaster mailing system and Muller Martini Minuteman stitching line.

Chapman could not reveal the recipients of the equipment, however he did say that the Mailmaster would be on its way to China.