Express Office Systems emerges from administration “meaner and leaner”

Express Office Systems has emerged from administration, as a “meaner and leaner” company and is looking forward to another 20 plus years in business.

The 19-year-old technology retailer, based in Melbourne, collapsed in October with $1.5 million in debt.

Malcolm Howell and Renée Di Carlo from Jirsch Sutherland were appointed as administrators.

But the business has been saved, undergoing a restructuring and losing some personnel.

Express Office Systems director Robert Ranieri told SmartCompany the deed of company arrangement was accepted by creditors on November 7.

A deed of company arrangement is a binding agreement between a company and its creditors governing how the company’s affairs will be dealt with as a result of the company entering voluntary administration.

Deed of company arrangements aim to maximise the chances of a company continuing, or to provide a better return to creditors than an immediate winding up, or both.

“We’re back in business and the control of the company was handed back to us on November 7,” Ranieri says.

“In a 19-year-old business, mistakes are going to be made along the way, but we understand that there were problems in terms of our structure and there were cash flow issues.”

Ranieri says the business has now learnt from its past mistakes and has returned to operation stronger than ever.

“All of our contracts are still in place, but we’ve made some necessary changes to personnel which needed to happen,” he says.

“While we’ve lost some personnel, they really had to go, and we will be looking to hire.”

Express Office Systems primarily provides businesses with imaging, printing and IT infrastructure products and when it was placed in administration Di Carlo told SmartCompany it had a multi-million dollar turnover.

The businesses major creditors are NAB and Dicker Data (a hardware distribution business).