Industry ire as Protectaprint trades on

Failed Melbourne trade laminating service Protectaprint is continuing to operate, much to the ire of rival outfits, who say its own unsustainable pricing led to its demise in the first place.

The company is now in voluntary liquidation, put there by the owners Richard and Steve Wilkinson. For unsecured creditors an entity in voluntary liquidaiton means they have no recourse to claiming their invoices.

Barry Wright at Cor Cordis looking to sell the business or the assets, and has decided to keep the company operating as the best way to ensure creditors have a chance of recouping some funds. However calls to the business go unanswered.

Voluntary liquidation means the former owners hand over control of the business to the liquidator.

Rivals vented their ire at the current situation which is seeing the business continue to trade, even though it is carrying $1.7m worth of unsustaiinable debt. Barry Webster, managing director of TLC, says, “We have good companies both in print and finishing battling hard in the industry, never mind having to put up with antics like this.

“TLC, like many print finishers and printers, pays staff entitlements, pays taxes, and pays all suppliers on time, and we still have to battle companies like Protectaprint who do not and set up to start again wiping off the debt.”

 The main assett of Protectaprint, apart from its customer list, is a Taiwanese laimating system. Many customers - printers in and around Melbourne - have already migrated to rival operators such as TLC and Avon Graphics.

Protectaprint went bust late last year three years after brothers Richard and Steve Wilkinson bought what was the Victorian arm of Allkotes.

A new trading name Protectaprint Victoria was registered last March.