Stop the press: Printing business with $8 million in turnover in administration

A printing company with approximately 35 staff and a turnover of around $8 million per year has gone into receivership.

Print National, a NSW-based business, was placed under external administration earlier this month, with a buyer for the business now being sought.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu administrators Brendan Chapman and Neil Cussen are seeking “urgent” expressions of interest from parties to take over the company.

Cussen told SmartCompany this morning that: “I can advise that the receivers are taking a business-as-usual approach, and are seeking immediate expressions of interest for a sale of that business.”

Print National has operations in Lisarow, Sydney and Newcastle, and achieved turnover of approximately $8 million in the 2012-13 financial year.

It markets itself as a business that offers a “one-stop service in the conception, design and production of printed marketing, sales, promotion and information materials”.

Services include offset and digital printing, binding, distribution and in-house design.

Examples of client work shown by Print National include Australian Wine Selectors magazine and brochures for Southern Star International and P&O Cruises.

The Australian print industry has been hit hard in recent years, with a recent Printing in Australia market research report by IBISWorld showing that a number of “social and economic trends conspire to work against it”.

“Consumers are increasingly choosing to receive information via alternative mediums, such as the internet, rather than via printed materials,” IBISWorld reported.

“This has led to a decline in demand for the services of professional printers. New media continues to encroach into the domain of book and periodical publishing, as the printed word proves slow to produce and costly to distribute.

“Consumers and businesses are increasingly trading and conducting business online without the aid of printed materials.”

The IBISWorld reported showed that the printing industry in 2012-13 generated $8.2 billion in revenue, with a profit of $562.6 million. It generated $55.7 million in exports. It reported there were 5537 businesses in the industry.

IBISWorld found that revenue in the print industry is expected to decrease at an annualised 3.6% over the five years through 2017-18 to $6.78 billion.

The previously strong Australian dollar made an impact on the industry, with a number of customers seeking overseas options for printing services.

Print National’s head office was contacted by SmartCompany this morning, but no comment was offered prior to publication.

The printing industry is just one of many to suffer in 2013, a year which has recorded the highest insolvency rates since 1999.

Last week, liqueur company Bacchus Distillery collapsed, while many mining equipment businesses have also suffered.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this piece linked Print National to the business PDQ Designs. We wish to clarify that PDQ Designs are not involved in any way with the receivership and sale process.