After running the business for 30 years, industry veterans John Israel and business partner Robert Gemmell sold Embassy Press to Craig Dykes and Ryan Paternott on 1 August 2010. The new directors called in liquidators HLB Mann Judd one year later.

Creditors have voiced speculation over the closure of Embassy Press and subsequent opening of Dykes and Paternott’s new business, Embassy Print.

Israel told ProPrint he wanted to set the record straight about his part in the company closure.

“I will lose my building and I will finish up a bankrupt after 43 years in the printing industry and it is my own silly fault because I had faith in these people.”

Dykes would not go on the record to ProPrint due to an impending legal dispute, but there was clear discord between the two sets of directors.

It seems the dispute hit fever pitch in the weeks leading up to the liquidation. According to Israel, both sets of directors locked the others out of the site during July.

A new business, Embassy Print, was registered under the name of Kristina Paternott in June and is currently leasing press time from Docklands Press.

Dykes and Paternott both work for the company, along with 12 former staff members of Embassy Press.

At a creditors meeting on 10 August, HLB Mann Judd were asked how “the directors are allowed to start a new company in the same industry”.

The liquidator said the Embassy transaction was “not a phoenix” as there “appeared to be a bonafide sale of the company’s assets”.

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