ADMINSTRATOR SETS MONDAY DEADLINE FOR ACCESS & GRAPHIC EOI

The administrator for Access Print Solutions and Graphic Web has set a deadline of Monday for anyone thinking of buying the businesses to get an Expression of Interest in.

The sale of the business as a going concern is one option for the administrator, Sule Arnautovic, with a Deed of Company Arrangement (DOCA) the other.

A DOCA would not be popular with the rest of the Sydney and Adelaide print communities, as it would allow the companies to carry on competing for work, but with their debts, and therefore operating costs, slashed.

First meeting of creditors is today (Friday), with the second creditors meeting set to take place in four to six weeks time. The administrator says it is too early to tell if unsecured creditors will see any of their invoices paid.

The directors of the companies cited poor economic trading conditions, a significant cost expenditure with respect to various premises leases, and outstanding statutory taxation obligations as the reasons they placed the companies into administration

Access and Graphic Web have a turnover of $18m between them, with staff numbers now around 50. The businesses are owned by Mark Holmes and Norbet D’Souza and their wives, who established Access in Granville, NSW 20 years ago. They bought Adelaide-based Graphic Web in 2015, and a year later rolled in Wayne Sidwell’s Cadillac Printing to the company, which was also based in Adelaide.

Graphic Web is one of only three printers in Australia running heatset web, with a 16 page printer, the others are owned by print management giant TNA, and by the country’s biggest print operation IVE. Graphic and Access both run B1 sheetfed presses.

Graphic also runs a five-over-five stacked B1 Komori, two five-colour B1 presses, and digital print systems.

Access offers a diverse range of printing, packaging and promotional services. It has a raft of external accreditations, including ISO 12647-2 and Sustainable Green print. The company has offset, digital and inkjet wide-format print technology on site, with its high-tech print operation using Prinergy workflow and CIP4 data to drive its trio of fully automated presses.