David Pryke, director general of NAPM, refused to take the bait from Marchant, who urged merchants to cold-shoulder firms continually relaunching to avoid paying debts.
Marchant had said he would join any campaign to force merchants to adopt a policy of no deals with such firms (PrintWeek, 19 April).

Robert Horne took 3m in bad debt last year and insurers recovered less than 400,000, said Marchant, who added there were few enough merchants in NAPM to make such a policy work.

But Pryke said: We as a trade association cant dictate who firms deal with, or why they shouldnt deal with particular ones. Each company has to be judged on the merits of its rebirth.

He was opposed to blanket policies on phoenix companies or ganging up against them, and insisted the term phoenix be clearly defined.

If the NAPM knew of a phoenix firm breaking the law it would tell the DTI, he said. But in a letter to PrintWeek Pryke insisted decisions to trade or not must be taken by individual companies.

He sympathised with Marchant, but it was not NAPMs remit to discuss trading relationships of individual merchants, he added.

Story by Jez Abbott