More than 20 workers were told to go home after a printing firm went into administration and suspended trading.

Fencourt, based in Littlehampton, collapsed after its parent company ITT withdrew funding and work from a major customer dried up.

PricewaterhouseCoopers' Mike Jervis and David Chubbhave been appointed joint administrators of Fencourt Printers with a view to salvaging the business.

Fencourt provides a range of commercial printing and associated services - from design and reproduction through to shrink wrapping and stitching.

Directors requested administration following the withdrawal of financial support by its parent company and a major customer.

Mr Chubb said it was "regrettable" trading at the company's factory in Riverside Industrial Estate had been put on hold.

"However, the administrators are in discussions with interested parties in an attempt to preserve as many jobs and as much of the business as possible," he added.

A PwC spokeswoman said: "It is our job to take an overview of the business and try to salvage as much of it as possible but it is too early to start speculating about how successful that might be.

"As things stand, 23 staff have been sent home on full pay and we are in negotiations with interested parties."

Set up in 1970, the company, which is a subsidiary of McCorquordale Confidential Print in Milton Keynes, enjoyed its heyday in the late Nineties.

Then, it employed 40 staff and had an annual turnover of more than £4 million.

The printing industry is one of the largest of the UK's manufacturing industries, serving all sectors of the economy, but competition is fierce.

According to recent figures from the Department of Trade and Industry there are around 17,000 printing companies in the UK, with 90 per cent employing fewer than 20 people. Roughly 500 of them employ more than 50.

24 May, 2005