A fabric printer says it plans to continue as a "market leader" despite going into administration.

Companies House, which details the trading status of UK companies, listed Stead McAlpin, in Cummersdale, as going into administration as of last Tuesday.

This followed a meeting to approve a corporate voluntary arrangement in October 2018.

A CVA is an arrangement in which a company in financial difficulty can arrange to pay its debts back to creditors.

It followed a difficult year for the business, which specialises in designs and prints for fabrics, including for use in furnishings.

In October it made nine workers redundant and saw six taken to hospital following a chemical fire in May.

Nineteen workers were also made redundant in October 2018.

However, business and customer service manager Mark Bradley said the process had been part of a restructure and it intended to continue trading.

He said: "As of February 18 we closed down a couple of our associated businesses and rolled them both into a new entity, however we will still trade as Stead McAlpin."

He said the "associated businesses" were based in Lancashire and there were no plans for further job losses.

"It is the intention over the coming months to relocate other businesses onto the Cummersdale site," he said.

"For the last 18 months we have been restructuring the business via a CVA in order to remove much of the high volume commodity work, and to concentrate on our high end furnishing customers.

"The arrangements have sucked cash out of the business and caused other difficulties in trading and taken up much management time.

"A decision was taken to exit these arrangements in order to secure the business and move forward with more certainty.

"The restructure is a positive for the future of the business.

"We have investments agreed for substantial growth in digital printing, which would not have been possible under the CVA, and we intend to firmly remain as the market leader in high printing and dyeing.

"The restructure has been relatively seamless with the business carried on as before."

Stead McAlpin was launched in 1835, with the firm being rescued 10 years ago by the Lancashire textile business of R Soper Limited.

Mr Bradley added: "We would like to be here for a substantial amount of time.

"We need to start again and grow the business and get some green shoots coming through."