Michael Young of St Albans-based corporate recovery specialist Morton Thornton said he was taking advice from agents about the next step for the businesses, and that a meeting of creditors would be called in due course.

Pressdatas former Indigo specialist, Chris Chambers, has joined near neighbour 1st Byte in a sales and marketing role.

Pressdata acquired digital printing house Silver Line in November 1999. It gained Silver Lines two six-colour Indigo TurboStream presses as part of the deal, and combined the operation with its Iris digital proofing and Heidelberg Herkules imagesetters.

Pressdatas last set of accounts, to 31 January 2001, showed sales of 1.9m but a pre-tax loss of over 30,000.

Silver Lines accounts for the same period showed sales of 557,553 and a pre-tax loss of 7,951.

Pressdata was formed in 1990. It employed 25 staff. Silver Line had 18 staff.

Story by Andy Scott