Polestar’s chief executive Barry Hibbert has long been an advocate of the consolidation that has taken place across the Euro-pean printing industry over the past five years. Time has proven him right – the consolidation has come – but Polestar has never been able to capitalise because, despite its many financial restructurings, it has always struggled under the burden of its remaining debt.

One has to believe, in the wake of the Sun deal, Pole-star has finally run out of investors to wheel into its barber shop. The Pension Scheme was the final significant unsecured creditor the company could conceivably persuade to write off its debt without turning to trade creditors, which would by the management’s own admission likely lead to the failure of the company.

So what would happen if Polestar found itself facing insolvency again as we know now it was at the beginning of the year (see cover)? Despite its inability to participate in the consolidation that has seen Walstead buy first Wyndeham, then Southernprint and now St Ives Web, Polestar – since its formation – has always held the trump card of knowing the market cannot survive without its capacity.

This means even if Polestar were to go into administration, there would be no mass exodus of clients because, aside from the logistical nightmare, there aren’t enough alternatives. Polestar is, in the vernacular of the financial crisis, ‘Too Big to Fail’.

Simon Nias is news editor of PrintWeek