Administrators Paul Williams and Benjamin Wiles from Kroll Advisory were appointed as joint administrators of Screaming Colour in January.
A month prior to that Kroll had been engaged to review Screaming Colour’s financial situation and advise on the firm’s options.
This included preparing for an accelerated M&A process.
Screaming Colour had taken out £1.1m in CBILS loans from NatWest and Funding Circle during the pandemic, but struggled to make repayments once the interest kicked in. When it went into administration trade creditors were owed £725,000 and HMRC was owed £269,000.
According to Kroll’s SIP 16 report related to the pre-pack sale to an unconnected party, Screaming Colour managing director Iain Moring helped the administrators identify seven potential buyers that he would be prepared to work with, given that “a significant part of the value of the company’s business was in the director’s relationship with customers, particularly given the lack of formal supply contracts”.
Two potential buyers made offers: one of £100,000 for the business and assets at Screaming Colour’s Crayford site, and a second offer for £1, for the business and assets at both Bermondsey and Crayford.
Further discussions resulted in the two interested parties making revised offers for the Crayford box making business only, and both offers were for £100,000.
A third offer of £25,000 was made by a separate party but this was just for the Screaming Colour name, IP, customer lists and order book.
“After consideration and discussion with the interested parties, the director [Moring] expressed his preference to work with the purchaser [Pureprint] going forward,” Kroll stated.
Pureprint Group acquired the business via Pureprint Abstract Ltd.
Moring is now sales director for box making and creative production at Pureprint, which is known for its high quality production values and environmental approach. The group was highly commended in multiple categories and won Bespoke Publications Printer of the Year at the recent Printweek Awards.
Pureprint also recently took on some former employees from the shuttered Pepper Communications business, and opened a new office in Plymouth.
