The Basildon-based printer and sister company Litho-Tech Colour Printers were placed into administrative receivership with Kroll Buchler Phillips last month, and although 166 redundancies were immediately made it was hoped that a buyer could be found.

But Kroll Buchler Phillips partner Lee Manning said the decision was taken after it became clear that an acceptable offer for the companies assets was not forthcoming.

"The industry is in a pretty depressed state and no one was prepared to take the business on in the present climate by paying over the auction price for the assets. There was one there, but it fell through," said Manning.

The assets of the 20m-turnover companies will now be sold piecemeal via auction to raise money for creditors. The remain-ing 100 staff have been informed of the closure and will claim for their redundancy via statute.

"It is a shame. It means that 250 jobs have been lost altogether," said Manning. "We take pride in saving jobs, but it just didnt happen this time. I thought that we may have been able to save half of the jobs."

In the year to 30 September award-winning Carlton Barclay recorded sales of 13.5m, with a pre-tax profit of 259,000. In the same period Litho-Tech Colour Printers reported a pre-tax loss of 764,521 on sales of 7.28m.

Carlton Barclay had added 700m2 of space to its factory to accommodate equipment from Litho-Tech, which it bought at the end of last year (PrintWeek, 14 December 2001). This equipment included eight- and 10-colour Heidelbergs.

Story by John Davies