The Flintshire carton board converter filed a Notice of Intention to Appoint Administrators at the end of March, with Richard Harrison and James Clark of Interpath Advisory subsequently appointed on 4 April. 

Boardlink specialised in carton board sales, conversion and lamination, including display boards for point-of-sale.

The firm’s Statement of Affairs shows an estimated total deficiency of £1.12m, after taking into account £1.4m of assets available for preferential creditors.

Iggesund Paperboard’s Workington mill, part of Swedish group Holmen, was the biggest single trade creditor and was owed £997,451 according to the report. 

However, the report also details stocks valued at just over £1m.

Printweek understands that Boardlink had a long-standing partnership with Workington, but this was terminated in a move that may have precipitated the firm's collapse, although this has not been confirmed. 

A Holmen spokesperson told Printweek: “Holmen have had a collaboration with Boardlink that we have ended for commercial reasons.”

The Hawarden firm’s annual sheeting capacity was 45,000 tonnes and it operated a bespoke 1.6m-wide carton board laminator that could bond up to five substrates from reel to sheet. It also offered ‘mother to child’ reel conversion.

In its most recent financial results, for 2023, privately owned Boardlink posted relatively stable sales, down 1.4% at £14.4m, and an operating margin of 5.32%. The firm had employed 64.