Ian McCulloch and Dean Watson, partners at Begbies Traynor, were appointed as liquidators of the Merseyside business last Thursday (8 August).

The company, which operated from a 1,100sqm site in Southport, had been marketed for sale during 2018, according to McCulloch, but no parties proceeded beyond initial expressions of interest.

Consequently, the company’s director decided to place it into liquidation and it ceased trading on 22 July following completion of all major orders. Its 13 staff were all made redundant with immediate effect.

“It is always sad when a long-standing business such as Mitchell & Wright fails. The company has struggled due to the decline within the print industry brought about by technological changes and a focus on less traditional forms of advertising,” said McCulloch.

“As a consequence the print industry has become extremely competitive and profit margins have reduced significantly.”

An online auction of the company’s owned assets was completed by Eddisons on behalf of the liquidators and closed on Tuesday (13 August).

Equipment up for sale included an Epson Stylus Pro 7880 wide-format printer, a Kodak Magnus 400 III Quantum platesetter, finishing kit from Duplo, Polar, Vivid and Stahl and a raft of office furniture and other associated items.

According to the company’s website it had also been operating two Komori litho presses, a GTO and a Quickmaster from Heidelberg and a Xerox DocuColor 250.

McCulloch said trade and expense creditor claims are approximately £115,000 and that the prospects of a return to creditors is currently uncertain.

Established in 1935, Mitchell & Wright Printers was sold in a management buyout deal to Graham Byrne and Andy Gibbons in 2009. Byrne is currently the company’s only listed director on Companies House.