Matthew Howard and Stuart Morton were appointed by STM’s directors as joint administrators of the Norfolk-based company on 13 July.

The 27-staff business manufactured polythene packaging products for a variety of industries.

The company had seen its turnover fall over the past few years, from around £5.5m in 2014 to £1.7m for the year ending 31 May 2017, but the growing backlash against single-use plastic packaging along with a “worsening” financial position pushed it into insolvency, according to the administrators.

Morton told the Eastern Daily Press: “Single-use packaging is not fashionable for environmental reasons so that has had a negative effect on the company’s turnover – it dropped quite substantially in recent months.”

The local newspaper reported that STM’s Northampton-based subsidiary Shirlplass has been sold and has taken on two employees from the parent company.

STM’s machinery, meanwhile, is being sold via an online auction while its customer and supplier database has reportedly been sold to an unnamed third party, which also took on two former employees. The fate of STM’s remaining staff is unclear.

See PrintWeek’s latest news briefing for more on the impact of the ‘Blue Planet effect’ on the print and packaging industries.