CHADWICKS SELL EXPRESS PRINT & MAIL

Controversial owners of Sunshine Coast-based operation Express Print & Mail, Wendy and Matt Chadwick, have sold the business, bowing out two years after the move to new premises.

The new owners of the business are current sales manager Scott Lehnhoff and account manager Glenn Weldon. Express Print & Mail has 55 staff, and claims to be the biggest print business in the region. Lehnhoff and Weldon now own both the Sunshine Coast and Wide Bay operations.

The sale closes the chapter on a story which saw mother and son Wendy and Matt Chadwick  both own the business separately at different times under different companies, and which saw the business move two years ago, leaving $3m of debts behind.

The original Express Print & Mail business was owned by Wendy Chadwick, who sold it to her son Matthew in 2010. Then the business was sold by Matthew Chadwick back to his mother Wendy for $177,000 in May 2020, before what was known as 128950489 Pty Ltd, which until then had owned the business, was put into liquidation, with $3.18m in debts owed to unsecured creditors, according to the annual administration return.

Debts listed at the time included $1.34m to its former landlord, $398,000 in employees' super, $1.25m to the ATO, and $34,000 to its electricity company. 

The business was moved to new 1400sqm premises in nearby Kunda Park that were leased on 1 April 2020, for five years, at $220,000 a year.

To say the rest of the local print community was less than impressed would be an understatement, as other printers in the area felt while they were paying 100 per cent of their costs Express Print & Mail had been able to slice its debts.

At the time Wendy Chadwick said, “The figure is grossly inflated and takes into account contingent debts (such as the lease) that have since been finalised; leased equipment which has been taken over and the instalments are being paid by the new business; and superannuation, which is being paid out over time by the new business.”

Back then Wendy Chadwick also said the unpaid wages are, "being paid out over time by the new business, with all superannuation payments since 1 January this year being kept up to date".

The Chadwicks said the liquidation stemmed in part from a deal of two years ago, when Express Print & Mail set up a company to buy the assets of the liquidated Chameleon Press from Chris Krieger. A downpayment was made, but since then claim and counter claims have been launched by both sides for hundreds of thousands of dollars, as the complicated deal went sour. She also said Covid-19 issues and no rent relief from the landlord were behind the move.