Peterborough Telegraph reported late last week that the business – based in the city – had been placed by the directors and shareholders into a "company voluntary administration", with 31 staff made redundant after it ceased trading.

The company’s website also now says “Fisherprint Ltd are not taking orders at this time” but that TLC Signs and Banners “is business as usual”.

Signage specialist TLC, based on the same site, was acquired in late 2016 by the group, the same year Fisherprint invested in a five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster CX 102 press.

Fisherprint was established in 1947 and specialised in pharmaceutical and corporate print. In recent years it had switched to suppliers using carbon capture schemes, started offering a fulfilment service, and began manufacturing packaging, according to its website.

But the Peterborough Telegraph said crises over recent years, from Covid-19 to soaring energy costs, had proved too much, even despite directors taking out large loans and considering relocation in a move to save the company.

Chief executive Miles Fisher was quoted in the newspaper as having said that the factors resulting in the closure of the business were “many and varied”, with Covid initially responsible for “a serious reduction in turnover that has never really fully recovered” alongside increasing materials and consumables costs over the last 12 months “that has kept the market depressed”.

Further business rates rises of 30% and soaring energy costs further contributed, with Fisher reporting a ”massive spike in electricity charges” when the company’s fixed rate utilities charge ended last November, taking its monthly bill from around £6,500 a month to £40,000 in December alone.

During this time, Fisher said the directors took out personal loans of “hundreds of thousands of pounds, believing the business could trade through the turmoil”.

But he said it “became obvious” the business was unsustainable, due to the spiralling costs, and a decision was made to sell its freehold property and relocate to “smaller but adequate premises”.

However, while an exchange of contracts was arranged, multiple deadlines for the exchange passed and “we have had to make the desperately difficult decision to cease trading as of 14 July 2023”.

He added: “I am extremely sorry for the 31 employees that have been made redundant.

“They are a very talented group of individuals and I’m sure there will be plenty of companies that will be delighted to offer them alternative employment.”

Printweek has contacted but been unable to reach Fisher directly for comment, and it is unclear who the appointed insolvency practitioner is, with no filings currently available on either The Gazette or Companies House.