Revill, Wells and 12 other employees were informed that their roles were being made redundant today (23 February). Around 38 staff remain.

Revill described it as "a horrible way to end a great career with a company I love".

He said: "I’m bitterly disappointed not to have been able to see this through to a successful sale. I wanted to be here to see the company sold as a going concern."

In response to questions from PrintWeek, joint administrators Zelf Hussain and David Baxendale at PricewaterhouseCoopers issued the following statement: "It is with regret that we have had to announce our intention to make some redundancies at the end of the month across all levels of the business, in order to ensure that we can continue to trade the business while we seek to secure a sale.

"We are speaking to a number of interested parties regarding various aspects of the business, but for reasons of confidentiality we cannot comment further at this stage."

However, PrintWeek has learned that staff at the company fear the entire business could close if a sale deal cannot be brokered soon.

Langley Holdings, the new owner of Manroland’s Sheetfed business, is viewed at the most likely potential purchaser of the operation, but it seems negotiations have reached an impasse.

"The impression we have is that talks have stalled. We don’t know what the stumbling block is, but it seems to be to do with the liabilities that Langley is or isn’t willing to take on," a source close to the situation told PrintWeek.

"Obviously, Tony Langley has become very rich by being a very shrewd businessman," the source added.

Manroland GB went into administration last December, shortly after its then-parent became insolvent.

The web offset side of the Manroland manufacturing business in Germany was subsequently acquired by German group Possehl, and UK-headquartered Langley Holdings bought the sheetfed wing and the bulk of the worldwide sales and service organisation.

There was no update from Langley Holdings at the time of writing.