The five-strong MBO team, who have worked together for six years, completed the deal for the Chester company on 31 December 2004.
The firm will continue to use the NEBS brand for several years, while phasing in the Qubic brand.

Boulton said that the idea for the MBO cam about after Deluxe Corporation, the American cheque printing giant, bought NEBS in June last year to create a 1.1m ($2bn) turnover corporation.

"We initiated the MBO because we wanted to protect our jobs and the jobs of the people. There were bigger fish to fry in terms of the merger of these two companies in the US," said Boulton.

"We didn't strictly know their intentions for us but saw the opportunity to see if they would be amenable to us going it alone."

He added the company's main route to market was through direct marketing. The company's core products are greetings cards, calendars, diaries and standard forms for the automotive and retail sectors.

The other members of the MBO team were finance director Kumar Kurrakal, sales director Mo Singh, marketing director Steve Dedo and operations director Mike Griffiths.