Fulmar Group chief executive Mike Taylor sold the empty factory space on New Years Eve last year for 2.4m, an amount that is due to rise to 4m over time depending on the development potential of the site.

If the plans by a local developer go ahead, it will mark the end of a print factory site in Lewes High Street that dates back to 1802.

The Baxters factory has lain empty since the staff and machinery were moved to a new site in Mitcham in the middle of 2002. The Fulmar Group bought the company from WR Royles in 1997.

Fulmar chief executive Mike Taylor said: We did work with the local council to try and find a manufacturer who would be interested in the site, without success.

The local residents association even wrote to us to support the idea of redeveloping the site. It is totally unsuitable for a modern manufacturing plant.

Reports from the local paper, Lewes Today, suggest that a buyer from commercial property company Raven has already been canvassing local opinion about demolishing the print works.

The company instead wants to redevelop the site in favour of 50 live / work units, whilst retaining the High Street frontage.

There are also redevelopment plans for two other sites immediately adjacent to Baxters, with suggestions that it would be logical to develop all three sites in tandem.

The frontage, with the WE Baxters name, will remain however, as it is a grade 2 listed building.

The WE Baxters factory will also live on at its site in Mitcham. It is a much more modern site and much closer to our headquarters building in Croydon. It has four presses, the largest being B2, and it still specialises in manufacturing ring binders, so the Baxters name will live on, said Taylor.