Trade suppliers are furious as Whirlwind is officially put to death, with the company being placed in liquidation. Both parts of the business, Melbourne and Sydney, are now in the hands of Andrew Hewitt and Ahmed Bise from Grant Thornton.
Total debt is unknown, but two paper merchants both have more than $1m of invoices outstanding. A host of smaller creditors are likely to see minimal cents on the dollar for their outstanding invoices. The first creditors meeting has yet to be arranged.
Speaking to Print21 one major supplier said, "We have had Whirlwind on no-supply for the past two months because of the extent of its debt." Another print insider close to the company said, "There is a lot more to come out, it will shock the industry."
The Cester family-owned trade printer sold many of its assets to trade print giant CMYKhub last week; that money has been used to pay off banks. CMYKhub also took up a lease on the company's Knoxfield print site. More than 50 ex-Whirlwind staff have been offered roles at CMYKhub in both Melbourne and Sydney. Taking the new jobs will not impact on their entitlements from the liquidation process.
The former Whirlwind staff were told by Andrew Cester to apply to the government's Fegs scheme for their entitlements. They were officially made redundant on Tuesday.
CMYKhub will fulfil all outstanding orders (see separate story); it asks for patience from clients, and says, "We understand this is a disruptive time for many businesses in the industry that used Whirlwind for a number of products. "It is also very sad to see the demise of a fellow family print business that was a respected competitor for many years."
Whirlwind was one of the most progressive businesses in the country, with multi-unit perfecting presses, and its own white label web to print system, catering to a large number of printers, resellers and brokers.
It got into trouble two years ago when it bought commercial printer Lindsay Yates, which turned into a disastrous decision. It intended to turn it into Sydney's premier high quality printer, however senior sales staff departed soon after the buy and the business never took off. A year later, Whirlwind then transferred the offset kit to Melbourne and rebranded Sydney as its digital hub.
The company has also suffered in the general industry downturn that has been going on for the past six months.
Whirlwind was established by the Cester family in 1998. They had a design agency but were unhappy with the print service they were experiencing, so started their own print business.