David Binnie, Ralph Sheridan and Bill Hamilton, all of whom were made redundant on Tuesday 13 May, moved quickly to secure Lüscher's business in the wake of TPI's collapse.

After TPI was placed in administration, Lüscher sales and marketing director Kurt Steidle told PrintWeek: "We will not continue with TPI as our agent."

Binnie, a former service engineer, said: "Thursday afternoon, we formed the company and then we got in touch with Lüscher and started the discussions with them to get the whole thing off the ground.

"We've now come to a formal arrangement with Lüscher to be an authorised service provider in the UK, which means they have given us permission to provide maintenance contracts, time and material work, installation work and relocation services on Lüscher CTP systems in the UK."

Binnie added that the newly-formed company was already close to securing maintenance contracts with some of the major companies throughout the UK that have Lüscher machines.

The three partners, who will visit Lüscher at Drupa with the aim of negotiating terms for sole UK rights, said that speed was of the essence in tying up the deal.

Binnie said: "The primary concern was continuation of service because if people saw that there was a discontinuation, then customers would get jumpy and, with Drupa starting up soon, UK customers might decide against Lüscher if there was that uncertainty."

Meanwhile, former TPI business development director Colin Price is reportedly set to continue selling Lüscher machines in the UK on behalf of the Swiss-based manufacturer.