Bluepoint Cambridge's litho staff start up Langham Press

The Langham Press, founded by former BPC director David Arnold and Karin Arnold, is operating from what was BPC’s Foxton site, which was repossessed by the landlord along with its equipment due to unpaid rent.

The facility is also the former home of Burlington Press (Cambridge) which was bought out of administration on 6 April 2009 by BPC and renamed Bluepoint.

The building’s landlord Paul Ridgeon is himself a former owner of Burlington Press (Cambridge) who sold the company in an MBI deal in 2000 and who is said to support the ex-BPC and Burlington Press staff in their bid to launch a new business.

BPC appointed administrators Leonard Curtis on Monday after filing a notice of intent on 5 July. Its digital division was sold in a pre-pack deal to Berforts Press on the same day, but its litho division ceased trading with all 30 staff made redundant.

Arnold said: "I have worked with the firm under various ownerships for 22 years, and it has been upsetting the way it collapsed so quickly.

"The plan is to try and save jobs for 14 people but if we can do more than that in the future then we will. We are operating from the same building but with a smaller square footage.

"On Wednesday, we began helping our customers with part-finished jobs by explaining the situation and asking how we could help them. This process took up the rest of the week.

"Moving forward, we will contact some customers who may remain loyal to us for historic reasons."

Commercial and book specialist Berforts Press pledged to keep on all staff from the digital division of BPC Group, which has been relaunched as Cambridge Digital Press.

Managing director Gerald White said: "Staff from BPC’s digital division are now part of our group.

"Our aim is to stabilise the firm which has been in a precarious position, and to integrate it.

"We are sorry for the people who have lost their jobs but the firm was in danger of going into full liquidation. It was coming to the 11th hour."