David Stephenson, senior manager with insolvency practitioners David Rubin & Partners, confirmed that a contract was being drawn up with the winning bidder.

"I can confirm that we are moving to draft contract stage with a prospective purchaser," he said. "We are now at a very delicate stage of proceedings, so I cannot comment about the identity of the parties or anything in relation to the draft contract."

On Friday (2 July), David Rubin & Partners revealed that it had identified three main offers for the business as a going concern.

"Our agents have been conducting discussions with the top three contenders, analysing and refining detailed points on the offers," he said.

"Our confidence that a going concern sale can be concluded continues to grow. Our conversations with major customers have been friendly and supportive and everybody wants this to work."

Meanwhile, Stephenson added that the question over the validity of the £2m debenture filed by an affiliate of former owner AIAC had not yet been assessed.

"The issues of which debentures are or are not valid is one that takes place once we have successfully completed the sale of the business and assets," he said.

"The first priority is to save the remaining business and the remaining workforce. We will look at debentures once that has been done."

Joint administrators David Rubin and Henry Lan, of David Rubin & Partners, were appointed to BemroseBooth on Monday (28 June), just under a week after the company announced the closure of its two Derby sites, with the loss of 160 jobs.

The company also made 26 staff redundant at its Hull site, prior to the appointment of administrators.