Of the 300 staff at the firm, 130 have been made redundant.
"There was very little interest in that side of the business and several publishers, including Cond Nast, have now gone elsewhere," said administrative receiver Richard Neville of Neville Hatton & Co.
A deal could be tied up this week for the rest of the business, which is automated and includes shrink wrapping. The firm would not reveal the identity of the possible buyer and rumours that St Ives was in the frame to buy Ailec have been dismissed by the group as "just speculation".
Ailec Mailing Services went into administrative receivership a fortnight ago. The move was due to cost escalations because of the minimum wage, business rates and energy costs.
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