Sydney print manager closes as client goes direct to printer

Printworld International co-owner Julian Garness said the company hit trouble in March-April when a client of seven years engaged Offset Alpine Printing.

The four-staff operation suffered another big blow around the same time when it was burned for $70,000 by a European client, Garness told ProPrint.

“That was the last nail in the coffin for us and we couldn’t recover from that,” he said.

“We did everything we could. We just couldn’t keep up with the bad debt we incurred.”

Brian Allen and Peter Burton of Burton Glenn Allen were appointed administrators on 28 August.

Burton said Printworld International had accumulated about $200,000 of debt. The nine creditors included printers and the Australian Taxation Office, but the bulk of the money was actually owed to Garness and his wife.

Garness estimated that he and his wife had lost up to $140,000 in the collapse.

“That’s what we put in to try to keep it going, but we couldn’t sustain it any more,” he said.

Burton said Printworld International had no realisable assets and that creditors were unlikely to get any money back.

However, Garness told ProPrint he was determined to repay his debts, although he couldn’t say when. “If ever I come into any money, at the first opportunity I will do that, without a shadow of a doubt. I’m not that sort of person [to walk away from debts].”

Garness said the rise of the internet had made it harder for print managers, because clients found it easier to source suppliers.

Garness is also a director of a marketing agency, Sense Communications, which he said had stopped trading several months ago.

Stephen Anstice, chief executive of Offset Alpine’s parent company, IPMG, told ProPrint he was not aware of Printworld but said: “I have no idea how losing a client could send a print broker broke.”

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