Canberra’s second biggest printer, Paragon Printers Australasia, has shut its doors and collapsed into administration owing more than $3 million and leaving more than 50 staff out of work.
Canberra’s second biggest printer, Paragon Printers Australasia, has shut its doors and collapsed into administration owing more than $3 million and leaving more than 50 staff out of work.
The company closed down its Fyshwick, ACT facility on Monday and it’s Sydney office at Crow’s Nest is also closed. Calls to both locations ring out and owner Mel Dalgleish has been unavailable for comment.
“Obviously it is very distressing for all involved,” said Henry Kazar, of Ernst & Young Australia. “There were many long-serving employees of the company.” Kazar and Philip Campbell-Wilson of Ernst & Young were appointed by Dalgleish as voluntary liquidators on Monday.
Unsecured creditors are owed approximately $3.3 million, with paper supply companies accounting for more than half. The company’s full workforce of 51 employees – 46 in Canberra and five in Sydney – have been notified of their termination of employment.
“We are still assessing the business to determine the exact reasons for the failure of the company,” said Kazar. “However, the sector has been going through significant rationalisation for a number of years. We are exploring all available options to achieve the highest return to creditors as a whole, including selling some or all of the business and its assets.”
Kazar said all employee entitlements, with the exception of outstanding superannuation employer contributions, would be covered by the Federal Government’s Fair Entitlement Guarantee Scheme.
Paragon Printers is one of the largest independently owned commercial printers in Australia, specialising in offset, large format and digital printing. It had invested in the latest Heidelberg presses including a 10 colour perfecting press and a 6 colour press with aqueous coater. It's digital print arm, Paragon Rapid, focused on short run print and finishing solutions
A Canberra printer said the news came as a shock. “I just heard about it in a phone call. Paragon was the second biggest printer in the market here and did a lot of government work but there has been a definite decline in the amount of printing work done in Canberra. The pricing structure for government work is among the lowest in Australia and everyone cuts to the bare minimum to get that work. And meanwhile, the government keeps pushing things online these days, which is also unfortunate for our industry."
In July, then-Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull appointed Paul Shetler to head up the federal government's new Digital Transformation Office in Canberra that was established with an aim to 'guide government departments into the age of internet service delivery.'
Paragon had been forced to look for work outside of the Canberra market, said one local printer. “Paragon had established a presence in the Sydney market and it used to get a lot of work there and then produce it here and freight it out. But each time I’ve run into Mel Dalgleish recently he told me that the work out of Sydney was the only thing that was keeping the business going.
“Hopefully, this could end up being good for other printers in Canberra, in terms of picking up work, but really it’s much too early to say.”
A meeting of creditors is expected to be announced shortly.