Probably the only crumb of comfort given to James Crean shareholders this week was the suggestion from Ray McLoughlin that the group might consider selling off its American food division and return the cash to shareholders.

If Crean's planned demerger of its print operations finally goes ahead, it will mean that the US food operations will be Crean's only assets - hardly a solid base.

At this stage, with the British electrical business sold off, with the demerger and flotation of the print business part of Ray McLoughlin's master plan and with the US food business too small to be of any significance to a public company, the most humane thing that Crean should do for its shareholders is to follow the example of Jones by winding up the entire operation and giving the shareholders their money.

One extraordinary aspect of the Crean "restructuring" is the plan to go ahead with the demerger and flotation of the print and packaging business. Ray McLoughlin acknowledged that the current antipathy towards small-cap companies is hardly conducive to floating a small print operation on the markets.

Operating profits of £10.1 million (€12.7 million) - no sales figures were revealed in last week's results statement - means that Crean's print business is almost 2 1/2 times smaller in operating profits terms than Adare. And Adare is currently trading on a prospective price/ earnings multiple of barely 6 1/2.