An Oxfordshire company is one of three rival firms bidding to acquire book packager Marshall Editions.

Reference book company Andromeda, based at The Vineyard, Abingdon, Chrysalis Books, and Octopus Publishing are believed to have tabled bids of between £500,000 and £1m for Marshall editions, according to book trade magazine, The Bookseller.

Marshall, which commissions and produces illustrated titles for a number of publishers on gardening, lifestyle and children's subjects, has a backlist of 300 titles and previous annual turnover of about £6m. It has fewer than ten current titles.

The adult illustrated list was put on the market last September by its parent Just Group, which went into administration amid allegations of financial mismanagement.

Andromeda was bought by Medi@Invest four years ago after running into financial difficulties. City investors raised £10.4m on the stock market to fund the purchase.

Andromeda was set up in the 1980s to publish reference books and encyclopaedias. It now packages books, providing content and design, for publishers, including Grolier, Oxford University Press and Macmillan.

Andromeda Holdings owns Andromeda Oxford and children's novelty book specialist Pinwheel.

Marshall is being sold by financial administrators KPMG Corporate Recovery.