Ward Knowles went into administration with insolvency practitioner KPMG on 28 July, before the main site in Accrington was sold to print behemoth Paragon Group on 4 August.

Speaking in an exclusive interview last week, Paragon's group sales and marketing director Iain Black said that the purchase of Ward Knowles would give it the middle ground to offer a complete service.

He said: "We have had the capacity to handle five documents, or 5m documents, but the middle bit has been missing. This purchase has helped fill gaps. I think a lot of customers like dealing with one supplier and now they know that we can deliver the full spectrum.

"If you put yourself in the print manager's shoes, the supply chain is often compromised in this industry because so many companies are going bust. The view I have is that a supplier such as Paragon can offer the print manager an end-to-end solution."

As part of Paragon's plan to integrate Ward Knowles, the Manchester facility was not taken on. However, Black said that he didn't plan to further downsize the Accrington business because cutbacks had already been made.

He said: "A lot of what was needed they have done and KPMG have done. They closed Cheshires Colour Mail and when [administrator] Paul Flint was appointed he made a number of people redundant as soon as he came in.

"What we have now is approximately a £12m business with a supportive client base and a lot of the cost taken out. We bring with us all the positives that a big group brings, but this was already a good business with good management and a good service offering."

Ward Knowles will continue to under its own brand as well as part of the Paragon Group.