Buckingham Binders appointed liquidator David Cork of McCabe Ford Williams on 14 April 2009. A meeting of creditors has since been called for 14 May 2009, at which the company is expected to go into liquidation.

A petition to wind the company up has been put forward by HM Revenue and Customs and is due to be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice today (29 April).

Managing director Nigel Crook told PrintWeek yesterday that he had bought the company's assets with his other company NJ Bindery Consultants, subject to the ratification of the creditors.

NJ Bindery Consultants has also taken on some of the preferential liabilities, including staff wages, although Crook has said that he will still have to make "overhead reductions".

Crook blamed the situation on a series of bad debts, late payments and an unfair dismissal payment and claimed that the company would not have survived without this move.

He said: "Companies suddenly weren't paying on time, some payments have gone 110 days. We had nowhere to go. I needed more time, which the Inland Revenue was not willing to give me. I could not see another way out. "

Crook claimed that, so far, his creditors have been sympathetic to the company's plight.

He said: "There is a trust that is built up over years. They have agreed to trade with me on credit terms. Other people will probably have the same opinion that I have had in the past. I have always been against it [pre-packs].

"I know of companies that have done this several times, including one that has gone under and come back four times. But I believe this is different, we have been going since 1988 and this is the first time that it has happened.

"It isn't something that I took lightly, it was a last resort and something that I tried to avoid. But if I didn't do this 20 families would be left without an income. If the Inland Revenue had given me more time I could have traded out."

And Crook believes that situations like his could be avoided if the government made it a legal requirement to pay debts inside 30 days.

He added: "That is the biggest thing the government can do to ease stress on a lot of companies. When a company doesn't pay it hurts, you rely on that cash flow.

"It would also mean that if a company went bust you may only be owed around six weeks worth of payment. Now, if a company goes under you can be stung for months' worth. It would push cash in people's pockets as well and I only believe it would take around six months to allow everyone to get in line with it."