TROUBLED printing firm DocQwise Business Services Ltd of York goes into liquidation tomorrow, but 19 of its 21 jobs may be saved.

No sooner has the month-long survival struggle come to a climax for founder and managing director Jan Eskildsen, than he has established a new, expanded operation on the same site in Station Rise.

Paper4U, which for the past year has been Mr Eskildsen's separate procurement arm for DocQwise Business Services, is in the process of buying out the company's goodwill, plus the remainder of its assets, including its press, to secure the 19 posts.

Two jobs have been lost with the closure of a Leeds outpost.

Chris Ratten, of Tenon Recovery, is expected to be appointed administrator for liquidators at the creditor and shareholders meeting in Manchester tomorrow.

He said DocQwise Business Services had entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) - an agreement with creditors on how to pay outstanding debts. "However, during the year they experienced a number of difficulties, not achieving sales targets, and as a result, at the back end of last year, it was decided that the CVA could not continue."

Mr Eskildsen, 44, a former career officer in the Danish army, said today: "I will be able to tell the meeting tomorrow that all undisputed invoices have now been paid, and an honourable phoenix is rising from the ashes."

DocQwise Business Services Ltd was started as a result of a management buy-in of the British Rail in-house print facility in 1998.

It became one of the most successful independent document management companies in the north.

It offered a wide range of document and digital print-related services, and serving blue-chip clients such as the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department for Work and Pensions, Network Rail, Jarvis, GNER, Arriva, Corus and LearnDirect.

It also printed millions of local government voting forms.

Mr Eskildsen claimed that problems "came out of the woodwork" at his outposts in Derby and Leicester, which were accumulating debt.

He sold the Leicester operation and closed down Derby when he discovered that they had put his business £300,000 in the red.

"It looked like Derby was profitable, but only because the revenue was being reflected in its accounts and not the work - or cost - which was carried out in York."

Having examined his firm's plight, Mr Eskildsen agreed to the CVA.

DocQwise Business Services Ltd formally closed in October. But its clients continued to be served by Paper4U, an internet-based supplier of paper products and toner cartridges.

Accountants and solicitors are among the clients who take advantage of its purchasing power. It acquires 36 million sheets of paper per year.

Although the premises in Station Rise is now trading as Paper4U, Mr Eskildsen is hoping to keep the DocQwise name.

"It is a well-known brand," he said. "It is as well that we were audited as regularly as every two months. It allowed us to spot the problems early and take action in a responsible way."