Staff at the company were mainly made up of family members, but two non-family employees have been laid off and subsequently found alternative employment, according to Sense managing director Tim Thompson. 

The company is expected to go into administration with Robson Scott Associates, also in Darlington, in around two weeks.

Thompson cited the company’s inability to secure adequate margins from its products as the reason for the company’s collapse.

“We got involved in various new things. We tried to diversify into more profitable markets but wound up spreading ourselves too thin,” said Thompson.

“We tried to get into photobooks but found the margins just weren’t there and there are a lot of other good players in the market.

“To run the new kit we took on a much larger headcount than we were used to.

“As the business began to fail we tried to reduce costs. I’m actually really proud of the efficiency we were operating at.”

The company’s largest creditor is HMRC, which is owed around £150,000. Kodak is also thought to be owed around £20,000.

At its height Sense was turning over more than £1.5m and employed 16 staff. The company operated a range of litho and digital print kit. One of its most recent investments was in a LumeJet 200 in March last year.

Thompson said: "We spent a small fortune putting the LumeJet technology into the factory. I mean the machine is fantastic; the quality is fantastic, but it was too little too late.”

The company also developed an e-commerce system, ThatPrintThing, intended to enable SME printers to sell a range of print products online.

Company ownership is split 50-50 between Tim Thompson and his father John Thompson, who is also a director.