Good Impressions director Peter Edwards told ProPrint that Sydney Allen was in the process of relocating from its Rydalmere site to Good Impressions’ Condell Park premises after the two companies agreed a merger.
“We’ve got a handshake deal, but we haven’t got around to writing it all out,” he told ProPrint.
Good Impressions had been searching for such a lifeline for three years, but called in the administrators in March owing more than $1.2 million.
The company had been trading at a loss since 2009, according to administrator John Vouris of Lawler Partners. It managed to stay alive after finalising a Deed of Company Arrangement in May, under which the company is required to repay $650,000 over 18 monthly instalments.
Edwards told ProPrint in July that he had spent three years talking to a range of suitors about a partial or complete sale of the business.
The new company “should be a marriage made in heaven”, he said.
“I think it’s a very good fit, because the things they’re strong at we’re not and [vice versa],” he said.
“Their 10-colour Heidelberg SM 102 gives Good Impressions’ customers significantly more capacity in magazine-type work, while our six-colour and coater plus excellent finishing equipment adds a range of high-end brand printing and finishing to the Sydney Allen customer base.”
Edwards said he would be an employee of the new company and that all 20 Good Impressions’ staff had also been offered jobs.
Sydney Allen general manager John Mangos said he was reluctant to talk until the deal was officially completed, which he predicted would happen by the end of the month.
He said the merged company would be called Sydney Allen Printers.
Vouris told ProPrint that the merger would not change Edwards’ obligations under the Deed of Company Arrangement. “As far as I’m concerned, as long as I get my money every month I don’t care where it comes from.”
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