Printcentre moves most work to Melbourne

Wide format firm The Printcentre is pulling most production out of Sydney just a year after moving into a new facility and buying an expensive flatbed printer.

Six staff of the nine staff have been made redundant, including three finishers, the production and customer service managers, and one other employee. Five are former TPS Venture staff while another was hired two months ago.

Former print finishing employee Frank Costello says he and five other staff at the Roseberry plant have been made redundant because the company was not getting the sales to make a profit in NSW.

He says all that will remain is two production staff and a pre-press operator who will continue to do gaming work. The staff kept on to do the gaming work will be moved to a smaller facility

ProPrint spoke to other former workers who confirmed they too had lost their jobs and most of the operation was moving but had no other comment.

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Sources close to the company say a 3.14m x 1.6m Inca Onset S40i flatbed printer installed in December 2013, and other equipment including an HP Latex 3000, will be transferred to Melbourne.

The company is only one year into a seven year lease on the Rosebery site and is said to be looking for someone to take over the lease.

The Printcentre re-entered the NSW market a year ago, embarking on an ambitious expansion plan owners John Doyle and Darren Soppi said would lead to a 980sqm capacity printing 31,000sqm a day across both sites using two Inca Onsets.

It was their second try at the Sydney market after buying The Printcentre and Brite Solutions in 2009 before Brite collapsed with debts of $2.3m in 2012 and the business retreated to Melbourne, using TPS as its NSW trade supplier.

ProPrint hasn’t yet been able to reach Doyle or Soppi for comment.

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