The company announced it had appointed Martha H Thompson and David H Gilbert of BDO as joint administrators to the £6.7m-turnover magazine printer.

In a statement BDO said that while it was looking for a "sale as a going concern" it had already made 53 of the 67 staff employed there redundant.

A spokeswoman added that BDO was "in the process of investigating a sale as a going concern with a skeleton staff" and that it would "endeavour to complete any work in progress".

Thompson said that the economic climate and difficult trading conditions had "significantly affected the business" and resulted in the administration.

Managing director Peter Kennerley was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.

The company was believed to have been linked with failed Maurice Payne Colourprint (MPC) after PrintWeek was forwarded information that it was planning a merger with an Oxford-based company that had a "10 Colour B1 with Cut Star and an eight-colour B1", making Nuffield the only known candidate.

However, BDO said that it had had "no communication with MPC" since its appointment.