Administrator Begbies Traynor has failed to find a buyer for Carlton Press Group and has sold off most of its assets.

　　The Manchester-based commercial printer, which went into administrative receivership on March 6 with the loss of 63 staff, had incurred bad debts and was "suffering the effects of the recession".

　　Gary Lee, partner at Begbies Traynor, said: "We've been looking for a buyer without success [since the company went into administration]. Carlton had previously spent months looking for a buyer, but one had failed to materialise, resulting in it calling in the administrators.

　　"We have sold most of Carlton's incumbent assets, which includes printing kit, desks, computers and the like. Much of Carlton's machinery was on finance, so has been returned."

　　Carlton Press had an annual turnover of £6m and was 287th in PrintWeek's Top 500 2008. It printed items including football programmes and flyers for financial institutions.

　　In 2002, Carlton Press bought the goodwill and assets of Carlton Offset, the Beckenham-based printer that fell into administrative receivership after ITV Digital’s collapse.