The group had already warned shareholders that it would not declare a profit, and while acquisitions helped sales last year grow by 13.7% to £49.2m, exceptional costs, bad debts and currency losses contributed to a pre-tax loss of £1.54m (2007 profit: £703,000).

As a result of restructuring actions, such as centralising administration functions at its Breaston HQ, the firm has made a significant number of redundancies and has cut its annual operating costs by more than £1m. New banking facilities have also been agreed.

"The positive point is the business is financially stable and with the refinancing we have the headroom to make further changes if we need to," sales director Eddie Williams told PrintWeek.

He described capital equipment sales as "still a challenge" with consumables sales providing the most resilient revenue stream.

"We've seen a 15% drop-off in consumables volumes in Q109 and margins are under pressure, but it's still continuing business coming in," he added.

"The April numbers are holding up against March and are slightly better on a daily rate basis so we're seeing some consistency, which is helpful."

The group spent its cash pile on the acquisitions of Graphica Plus and GAE at what turned out to be the worst possible time, but Williams stated: "Given the choice would we do it again – absolutely".

Another acquisition, Andersons, has just taken more than £250,000 of orders at the Sign UK show. "We can see some recovery in retail and point-of-sale. The decision not to go to Northprint and to go to Sign UK tells a story," Williams added.

Shares fell 2p on the news to 6.5p.