One of the most read stories this year, the saga of Blue Printing's collapse began in early February when it emerged that staff had been sent home after the Essex-based print group was unable to pay their January wages.

By 21 February the 160-staff group had been placed in administration and while the directors tried to pin partial blame for the group’s collapse on its factoring company, it was the ill-fated acquisition of Aldridge Print Group (APG) the previous year that proved the killer blow.

While Blue had grown to a £16m turnover business through a series of insolvent acquisitions, it transpired following its collapse that its ambitious acquisition-led growth strategy was the source of its undoing.

Problems arose following the June 2011 pre-pack purchase of APG after its expected sales of £9m/year turned out to be less than £4.3m/year, while the lack of support for APG clients from Blue’s factoring company – something the administrator said Blue should have established prior to the acquisition – led to unfunded sales reaching £800,000 by December 2011.

This resulted in the fatal cashflow squeeze that took the company down and while the directors said they remained proud of their record of saving jobs through their various acquisitions, they were left to rue pursuing one deal to many in APG.