Newton Aycliffe firm Addo Printing has gone into administration with the loss of 28 jobs.
As reported by Aycliffe Today 10 days ago, staff were laid off at the Aycliffe printers as managing director Keiran Bayley sought to find a “resolution”.
But it’s been confirmed that insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor was called in on December 4 – a day after Mr Bayley’s statement.
Addo Printing’s website has been purchased by Doncaster-based Expert Print – which has reportedly employed Mr Bayley as a salesman for its “Darlington office”.
It comes just 13 months after Addo, formerly of Darlington, bought out the crippled HPM Group in a pre-pack deal which left local firms thousands of pounds out of pocket.
Begbies Trayor is currently in the process of selling off Addo’s assets.
Bob Maxwell, a partner at the Thornaby-based administrators, said in a statement: “In common with a lot of other printers, the net margins Addo Printing were able to earn were very low.
“Unfortunately, a lot of print businesses fail because the net margins are insufficient to meet their liabilities and interest cost, and that’s why this one has failed.”
Addo saved 30 jobs in November last year when a last-minute deal saw them buy out HPM Group, a 125-year-old firm once famous for printing football programmes, which had gone into administration a day earlier.
The two companies had announced a merger in April 2014, but it later turned out the merger hadn’t officially gone through.
HPM Group managing director Richard Mortimer – pictured (below, right) with Mr Bayley after their “merger” – disappeared three weeks before the firm went bust.
Addo Printing started trading again from HPM’s building a day later, which angered HPM creditors.
In its heyday, HPM Group was once a £5m-a-year company with 80 employees which printed football programmes for Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Newcastle and Liverpool.
But after years of struggles following the recession, it joined forces with £1.2m-a-year Addo in the hope their combined client list would save and create new jobs.
But after losing deals to print programmes for both Sunderland and Middlesbrough, HPM was forced to call in the administrators.
And 13 months later Addo has suffered the same fate.
Mr Bayley declined to comment today (Monday).
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