The B1 and B2 sheetfed litho printer, which was known as Hedley and Molyneux the Printers until 1996, filed an extraordinary resolution to wind up on 14 September and was placed into voluntary liquidation on 28 September.

On 3 October its registered address was changed from an address in Finchley, North London, to that of the appointed Surrey-based liquidator Turpin Barker Armstrong, which confirmed that Martin Armstrong had been appointed liquidator, but declined to give any more information. 

A statement from the management at HM Printers said: "Due to a slight downturn, in an ever increasingly cut-throat and treacherous trade, we were regrettably forced to shut one of the companies in our group. A company which had been trading for over 25 years, very successfully, even throughout the difficult period of the last few years.

"Unfortunately our values and integrity that we had built up over this trading period are not shared by everyone in the trade.

"We had some bad debts earlier in the year that made it impossible to continue trading, this was due to the collapse of some accounts that we had been trading with for decades.

"Profit margins in lithographic print have also decreased dramatically of late, which has been more than well publicised."

HM Trade Print, which operates from the same premises, is unaffected and will continue to trade. It has also taken on HM Printers' 10 employees.

According to its statement of affairs, dated 14 September, HM has £103,673 in available assets for preferential creditors and a £528,133 deficiency (excluding shortfalls) to non-preferential creditors, leaving an overall estimated deficiency as regards creditors of £424,460.

There are 30 creditors overall, owed £526,453, which is the original deficiency figure minus a non-preferential deficiency of £1,680.

Trade and expense creditors are owed £122,675, including £39,246 to Kent-based paper merchant Scalderhurst and £18,780 to Antalis. HM Revenue & Customs is owed £25,078.

The unsecured non-preferential claims (excluding shortfalls to floating charge holders) include a payment of £362,200 to Evelyn Edwards, a previous director of HM Printers and widow of the firm's former owner Peter Edwards, who passed away in 2011. She resigned as a director on 2 April 2014.

Edwards’ two sons, Dominic and Mathew Edwards, were both previously listed as directors, but terminated their roles in March 2014, at which point their brother Jonathan Edwards became sole director of HM Printers.

The company's one listed shareholder, North London-based Waldon Company (Litho) lists all four member of the Edwards' family as directors.