Leading Melbourne printer Longbeach Printing, an official supplier of the Australia Made campaign, has suddenly halted production.
The company's website is down and the phone rings out. It's understood several staff members were escorted into the premises at Seaford North on Monday morning to recover their possessions. Customers have been left scrambling to cover print jobs and at least one customer already has been forced to make urgent arrangements with other printers to ensure that orders are completed.
Long Beach Printing was sold last year to Michael Wu, the managing director of Ability Press, who earlier this month was at the centre of a row with his partners in the mega merger that created Melbourne's Docklands Ability Press. Wu merged his Ability Press and On Demand businesses last year with Docklands Press, moving into the Todisco family-owned premises in Lorimer Street, Docklands.
Since then there's been a high-profile falling out between the partners but industry observers claim that Wu is still operating from the Dockland's Ability Press site which trades as Mercedes Waratah. All attempts to contact Wu have drawn a blank.
Longbeach Printing was an official supplier of Australia Made campaign labels and swing tags and provided official Australia Made Campaign Limited licensees with all trademarked merchandise. The company also provided full service 3PL, brand and print management and offered a complete range of services - from concept development, initial design and layout, through to the finished product and distribution.
Editor's clarification:
An earlier version of this story suggested that Wu's purchase of Longbeach had run into problems.
Print21 has since been contacted by former Longbeach owner Josh De Groot, who states that the deal was completed last year, that he resigned from the company last year and that he has had no further connection with the business since then.
De Groot's son John De Groot remained as an employee at Longbeach after it was sold.