Administrators in at Liverpool printers

ADMINISTRATORS have been appointed at Liverpool-based printing and direct mail group Character DPM.

Brian Green and Paul Flint from KPMG Restructuring were appointed joint administrators of Character DPM Group Limited and Character Mailing Services Limited. Character DPM is based at Aintree in north Liverpool, but also has sites at Bootle and Warrington, while Character Mailing Services is based at Stockport.

The sites employed 173 people between them, but 44 people have been made redundant immediately – 20 from the Warrington office and 24 of the 35 people employed at the Stockport business.

Flint said: “In addition to those challenges caused by the economic downturn, recent years have seen many companies in the printing sector battling hard in the face of over-capacity, pricing pressures and the effect of increased competition from low-cost overseas players.

“In Character’s case, this led the company to experience severe cashflow difficulties.

“However, given the fact the Group operates a print operation which enables it to print in-house and then feed the direct mail operation, coupled with its strong customer-base, we believe the business should prove to be an attractive opportunity to potential buyers.

“We therefore remain hopeful of securing a going concern sale and would encourage any interested parties to contact us at their earliest convenience.”