Ryobi international sales manager Mr Hamada told PrintWeek: "Ry-Offset will keep offering [Ryobi presses] until we get a new distributor. We don't know why they were put in administration but we already have candidates in the UK."
Green blamed Knight's problems on a combination of factors, including "an aggressive stance in the UK" by some global players.
He plans to trade all of Knight Machinery’s divisions - including Ry-Offset, Printers Superstore and Ryobi Press Centre - with a view to securing the sale as a going concern of the whole group or individual divisions. He has cut eight jobs out of 51.
It is believed that Knight has been holding a large quantity of used stock due to a Ryobi sale-and-buyback agreement. Although the equipment has a strong book value, current market conditions mean it has struggled to sell on stock as customers upgrade to newer models.
Majority shareholder Michael Knight, president of Ipex 2002, has also been embroiled in a multi-million pound divorce settlement.
It is unclear what impact Knight's problems will have on DI Solutions, its venture with Apex Digital Graphics to sell the Ryobi 3404 DI.
Knight Machinery (Holdings) made a pre-tax profit of £120,318 on sales of £12.7m for the year to 31 July 2001.
One Ryobi user said: "I'd hate to see them go down. They have excellent technical support."
Following the news, Knight resigned as chairman of the Picon Council and as a director of Picon.
Story by Gordon Carson
