At a meeting of creditors on 30 January 2016, Paul Appleton and Paul Cooper of London-based insolvency practitioner David Rubin & Partners were appointed as joint liquidators for the purposes of winding up the company voluntarily.
Founded in 1896, Purbrooks, of Gresham Way Industrial Estate, Wimbledon Park, is the latest in a string of London printers to enter liquidation.
In a statement, director Martin Stern confirmed that Purbrooks had gone into a Creditors' Voluntary Liquidation (CVL).
The statement said: “There is a general lack of demand for quality print at realistic margins and increasingly tight timescales had necessitated the need to retain a certain level of capacity. Brexit and an exceptionally long Christmas break created acute demand downturns and we realised that we could no longer fulfill our obligations to our staff and creditors.
“Longer term we were unlikely to be viable given the cost of maintaining a production plant in London and an imminent rise in business rates.
“The directors are saddened by resulting loss of jobs and are assisting our very loyal staff to find jobs elsewhere in the industry."
Purbrooks had a second director, Jan Prokop, who is also assisting Stern with helping the 18 affected staff find new jobs and with the sale of equipment.
Stern added that he had remained on site to assist with supplier retention of title and the sale of equipment owned by finance providers, as well as the sale by liquidation of unencumbered equipment and other assets.
He added: “Much of our work was based on framework agreements and this will pass to other suppliers on the rosters. I have assisted in the transfer of artwork files and stock so that clients have not been unduly inconvenienced.”
In its most recent accounts for the year ended 31 August 2015, Purbrooks had sales of £2,124,487, an 8.7% decrease on the previous year. It had an operating loss of £47,006 and a pre-tax loss of £95,562. It had fixed assets of £794,205 and owed creditors £635,685 within the year.
Purbrook’s liquidation follows a spate of London printers going under, including Clicks Print last week, Face Creative Services in late 2016, which was then acquired by Hobs Repro, and 1st Byte in October 2015.
