Matt Smith and Daniel Butters of Deloitte have been appointed joint administrators to Yorkshire-based printing business Bezier Ltd and Pointer Design and Manufacture Ltd.

The administrators have announced 254 job losses at Bezier, which employed a total of 402 staff across its Wakefield, Leeds and Poole sites. While Pointer Design and Manufacture still has some residual assets, the company is no longer trading and does not have any employees. A sister company, Coutts Retail Communication, is not affected by these administrations.

Matt Smith, joint administrator and restructuring services partner at Deloitte, said: 'The company has suffered a prolonged period of difficult trading which has resulted in it being unable to meet its financial obligations. Regrettably there is no other option but to announce these redundancies at this time. We have sought to retain 148 employees for the present time to assist the administrators with on-going trading and to seek an orderly transition of the companies' business.'