Clicks officially closed the doors of its 929sqm premises in Farringdon on 2 February, having appointed Matthew Wild of RSM as insolvency practitioner on 31 January.
Clicks managing director Alan Rigglesford, who took over the management of Clicks along with production director Graham Leggett in 2014, described the company as one of the few remaining central London printers offering large- and small-format print solutions.
Clicks’ 40 staff were all informed they would be made redundant on 1 February and will each be issued with a redundancy package, according to Rigglesford.
Companies House also lists James Christopher Washer and Jonathan Mark Landale as directors at time of closure. Rigglesford, Leggett and Washer are also listed as directors of a separate company, Pryynt Limited, which Rigglesford said has no relation to Clicks.
In a statement, Rigglesford said: “We are all very saddened by this. The company’s trading suffered a severe downturn in the last months of 2016 and despite our best efforts we weren’t able to cut costs fast enough.
“The reasons for the downturn are not entirely clear but we've heard similar stories from other printers. The market appears to have softened since the Brexit vote and, in our case, this was not helped by some large bad debts in the retail sector.”
In 2015, Clicks became the first company in the world to install a Screen Truepress Jet W3200UV HS with roll-to-roll.
Its plant list at time of closure on the exhibitions side included the Truepress, four HP DesignJet Z6200s, an HP L25500 Latex, an Acuity LED 1600 and an EFI Vutek GS2000.
For digital print, it had an HP Indigo 7800, an HP Indigo 5000 and an Lumejet S200, installed in 2015.
It also ran an Epson Expression scanner, a GMG Colour Server and a large variety of finishing equipment, for laminating, die-cutting, creasing, binding and folding.
In its most recent accounts dated to 31 December 2015, Clicks, which was previously called Clicks Digital Solutions, had tangible fixed assets of £2,134,760, with a net book value of £945,229. Secured creditors were owed £633,673.
Clicks’ administration follows a recent spate of digital printers in London going bust, including Face Creative Services in late 2016, which was then acquired by Hobs Repro, and 1st Byte in October 2015.
