The report into the firm’s collapse from administrators Ben Woolrych and John Lowe at FRP Advisory states that, despite an improvement in its financial performance during 2019, the group’s EBITDA of £885k was “insufficient to meet [its] debt obligations”.

When Taylor Bloxham’s 2018 accounts were filed in July 2019 showing an £893k loss, suppliers to the firm started reducing their lines of credit.

A winding-up petition filed in December was satisfied, but by that time another major creditor had supported the petition, resulting in a further squeeze on cash as suppliers demanded proforma payments.

FRP’s report revealed that the company was also liable for more than £300k in bonus payments due at the end of January, which it was “unable to pay”.

It also said that the group’s shareholders, the owners of holding company The Print People Group – Jacqueline Sharpless, the Sharpless Trust, April Sharpless, and Sharpless Investments – had provided funding to assist with previous restructuring costs but were unable to inject further funds into the business.

Floating charge holder Close Brothers appointed FRP on 6 February.

Taylor Bloxham owed Close Invoice Finance £3.02m at the date of the administrator’s appointment against a book debt ledger of around £4.12m.

Close Asset Finance was owed £2.83m secured on the firm’s plant and machinery, with other encumbered machinery at the business subject to finance with Compass Business Finance, Ultimate Finance and Investec.

Trade creditors were owed a total of £4.44m, with a dozen paper merchants and mills accounting for nearly £1.4m of that amount.

The hit to the local economy is likely to be substantial, with a raft of businesses in the Leicester area owed five- and six-figure sums, with Quinn Contracts (see below) at £326k and Encore Personnel Services (£290k) among the biggest creditors overall.

Employees were owed £1.87m in unsecured claims, and £174k in preferential claims. Taylor Bloxham Group had 171 employees.

HMRC was owed £536k and the estimated total deficiency of the group is £5.65m.

Unsecured creditors are unlikely to receive anything at all, FRP said.

During January FRP had attempted to sell the firm to trade and private equity buyers, with 28 parties signing non-disclosure agreements. Eventually three formal offers were received for parts, but not all of the business, with no offers made for the £15.5m turnover print division.

The business and assets of £4.3m turnover direct mail wing Mailbox were sold to David Wright’s Vanquish Acquisitions for £45,000 plus payment of the January wage bill arrears of £19,744, and other commitments including a six month licence to occupy the Mailbox premises. This was the only offer made for Mailbox as a going concern. The business now trades as Mailbox DM.

Wright was a contractor to Taylor Bloxham and had previously headed up the Mailbox business, and FRP has made a SIP16 report as a result.

Two offers were made regarding the £8.2m turnover Instore point-of-sale business, but one was withdrawn at a late stage leaving the offer from Leicester point-of-sale and shopfitting firm Quinn Contracts the only deal on the table.

Quinn paid £20k for certain assets and intellectual property of the Instore business and has agreed to waive its rights to any claim in the administration as part of the deal.

One pre-administration offer was received for the £2.4m turnover Fastant storage and fulfilment business, but this was withdrawn by the potential purchaser during due diligence.

The business and certain assets of Fastant were subsequently purchased by Manchester’s Allied Publicity Services (APS) for £30k. APS has also taken on a six month licence to occupy the Fastant premises in Leicester.

Fastant managing director Matthew Wennington has been employed by APS to run the operation, with most of its staff also taken on by the new owner.

All three purchasers will also provide support with the collection of pre-administration book debts. The transactions were reviewed and recommended by independent valuation agents Tallon.

Woolrych said the transactions would enable a better result for Taylor Bloxham's creditors as a whole than if the company had been wound-up without first being in administration.

“The sale price realised was the best reasonably obtainable in all the circumstances,” he stated. 

In the year to September 2019 the Taylor Bloxham Group had sales of £30.4m and had reduced its losses to £243k, according to the report.