Harlequin Display Group’s large format print division Graf is due to be liquidated while a new company, HQ Graphics, has been set up by Graf’s majority shareholder, Derek Wallis.
The Hatfield-based PoP printer, which is registered on Companies House as Nowelle, issued an engagement letter to London-based insolvency practitioner Griffins this morning (9 May).
Phil Burrows of Griffins confirmed that the firm had been approached by the directors of Nowelle, trading as Graf, to place the company in liquidation.
"We only got the letter of engagement agreed today, so matters are at a very early stage," he said. "But it is normal that we will convene meetings of shareholders, who have to be given 21 days notice, and it's traditional to hold creditors meetings on the same day.
"It is likely that we will be appointed liquidators at that meeting, but it is open to the creditors if they wish to appoint somebody else."
Meanwhile, Harlequin Display Group managing director Derek Wallis, who is listed as the majority shareholder in Nowelle's latest annual return, has resigned as a director of Nowelle and set up a new company HQ Graphics.
According to documents filed at Companies House, Wallis resigned as a director of Nowelle on 23 March (although he remains company secretary), before setting up HQ Graphics on 14 April. Wallis's co-shareholder Stephen Woodley remains a director of Nowelle.
Both Wallis and Woodley were unavailable for comment at the time of writing.
Graf, which supplied display graphics to a number of high-profile retail brands, was PrintWeek Poster Printer of the Year in 2009. | 
