Joint liquidators Chris Stirland and Phil Pierce from restructuring firm FRP Advisory were appointed on 31 December, following a meeting of the board of directors on 17 December during which the decision was taken to place the company into CVL.

The Stourton-based group, which employed 49 staff at The Website and 77 at Glynn Print Finishers, ceased trading immediately. 

Its demise has been blamed on the unexpected cancellation just before Christmas of a major contract, for which a number of full-time employees had been recruited, as well as a string of bad debts impacting cashflow.

The last contract, speculated to be for pizza chain Domino's, is understood to have involved as much as £500,000 worth of work every six weeks. PrintWeek understands that a change in the management of the Domino's contract has resulted in a switch of print supplier. 

Following the contract cancellation attempts to sell off some of the group’s assets, in an effort to ease the cash flow shortages, were unsuccessful. 

A statement from FRP Advisory said: "The wider paper and card printing market has been in chronic decline over a number of years since the advent of online publishing and the pace of that decline is increasing, however the group had managed to win market share in the past three years by investment in cutting edge printing press machinery. 

"The group was increasingly reliant on revenue provided from The Website but the cancellation of a key order from a previously loyal customer on short notice without warning left it with a large deficit which it was unable to fund." 

Joint liquidator Stirland said: “It is hugely regrettable that a strong Leeds-based business with a loyal national customer base and which has employed over 100 staff for more than a decade has had to close. 

“The Glynn Print Group only took on another 20 staff as full-timers in the autumn to meet the demands of a significant order due in December for an existing customer and had ensured capacity was focused on the needs of that order. 

“When the order was cancelled at short notice and without warning, the directors of the group were faced with a very tough task of finding replacement work at short notice in what has been a shrinking print market for a number of years, exacerbated this winter by customers placing Christmas orders early.” 

Stirland added: “We will continue to market the assets of the businesses to realise all that is possible in the interest of all creditors.”

Speculation, when news of The Website's demise broke in December, was that a pre-pack of the business was anticipated. 

A source told PrintWeek that final negotiations were now underway with a potential buyer for some of the group’s assets that "could lead to a couple of dozen jobs being created within the next few days".

The Website, which shared its 4,645sqm facility with Glynn Print Finishers, ran a range of kit including a Goss M600 that came out of Aldersons, a twin-web Polyman and 12-colour Speedmaster with CutStar as well as a raft of finishing and direct mail kit.

In the 12-months to 31 May 2012 the group made a profit of £107,000 on sales of £11.6m.