Maverick hits the skids, aiming for DOCA

Controversial Melbourne print business Maverick Print Group, which caused uproar in the Melbourne print community two years ago, and then changed its name to MVP Print, and is in voluntary administration.

The printer is now being run under license by a third party, with the adminstrator aiming to present a vote to creditors to accept a deed of company arrangement (DOCA) in a month or so. The DOCA would enable a third party to take over the business, paying creditors an agreed number of cents in the dollar, by an agreed time.

Maverick came into being in June 2019, just as nearby deeply indebted Dark Horse Print went into liquidation. Maverick caused consternation in the Melbourne industry when local printers realised it was registered to Sorcha Hopmans as the sole director and shareholder. Hopmans was the fiancee of Steve Roberts, the owner of Dark Horse, which went into liquidation with some $2m worth of debts.

Two months after it started trading, Maverick changed its trading name to MVP Print. It was operating from the old Longbeach Press building at 1 Rutherford Road, Seaford. Australian Trade Printers also moved into that building, vacating the premises it shared with Dark Horse on the Nepean Highway in Mornington.

Hopmans in fact was the person who originally registered the Dark Horse Print & Design trading name in August 2005, and had it as a sole trader until 2010. She continued working with the company until at least April 2019. Hopmans remained as sole director of Maverick/MVP during its two year run.

The new Maverick had a sophisticated website, with online chat, offering a range of products able to be ordered online, and which bore a similarity to the products offered by Dark Horse.

Unsecured Dark Horse creditors were looking at zip for their outstanding invoices, as they were last in line behind the employee claims and the secured creditors. The long list of unsecured creditors included equipment suppliers, paper merchants, freight companies, myriad trade suppliers and small businesses.

Dark Horse debts topped $2m, with $1.15m owed to unsecured creditors, $765,000 owing on a debenture over the company's assets, and $225,000 to preferential creditors.

The DOCA is a controversial, although completely legal mechanism; it enables a business to continue trading by allowing it to shed debt, subject to creditor approval. Critics say it enables unsustainable businesses to charge lower prices and distort the market, as their costs have been slashed, and means while rivals are still paying 100 per cent of their bills to suppliers and the ATO, the DOCA company is only paying a fraction of that.