Redditch-based commercial printer KNP Group has gone into administrative receivership after calling in Ernst & Young on Tuesday (6 February).


A spokeswoman for Ernst & Young said it would look to sell the company as a going concern, but 53 staff effectively the whole night shift and two members of the groups London sales team have been made redundant.


"The business has recently suffered losses and in the last few months has come under increasing pressure between higher costs, especially of paper, and a competitive market for its output," said joint administrative receiver William Tacon.


The GPMU has over 80 members in the total workforce and is in "co-operative dialogue" with the receiver.


It is unclear what assets are actually owned by the company, with chattel mortgages, mortgages and debentures on the buildings, land, machinery and presses held with various banks, building societies, finance companies and investors in industry.


Its 1999 accounts showed losses of nearly 500,000 on an annual turnover of around 10.5m.


Last August, the company installed a five-colour Mitsubishi 3H press, and added a second with coater the following month.


It also bought a Scitex CTP system, which comprised of a Lotem 800V platesetter and server, plus a number of G4 Macs, earlier in the year.


KNP started out as a small a family firm in the Alum Rock district of Birmingham in the 1930s. In the 1980s it moved to its current site from Kings Norton.


The news came as a Confederation of British Industry Regional Trends survey said 8,000 UK manufacturing jobs would go in the first quarter, with the West Midlands area recording the worst prospects.


Story by Andy Scott