The buyer of Planet Repros assets and goodwill (PrintWeek, 1 June) has been revealed as a new firm set up by the firms previous joint managing directors.


Studio Planet, set up by Kenneth Graves and Michael Furlong, bought the business from administrator BDO Stoy Hayward last Friday (1 June) for an undisclosed sum.
The new firm will continue to trade from Planets two Liverpool sites and its satellite office in Slough.


Following redundancies and some other departures staffing has been reduced from 62 to 42.


"We will continue to offer packaging repro with complete marketing support," said Graves. "Our future focus is on customer service and product variety. We aim to provide a complete service including design, photography, 3D mock-ups and point of sale."


Graves blamed the companys problems on an unpredicted downturn in sales from last November to April, which left it short of cash to settle its VAT bill. Despite negotiations it was unable to make an agreement to pay its VAT.


Its cashflow problems were exacerbated by having to write off 750,000 worth of pre-press kit that had left the firms balance sheet weak.


"Its been a very difficult time," said Graves. "Wed been successfully trading for 20 years."


Story by Barney Cox