Fresh from the failed bid to retain control of Media Options business, a close relative of former owner Baska Datta has started yet another printing company, allegedly powered by equipment from the old ones.
Datta is sending out targeted emails to printers around Sydney offering ‘pre-launch deals’ for Revesby-based Sydney Trade Print (STP), a business registered to Sureprint’s ACN, which is owned by his sister-in-law Amrit Chandra.
Several sources including Media Options creditors and staff at Datta-affiliated companies claim equipment from Sureprint and Sydney Print Hub was moved to the Sydney Trade Print site this weekend in a series of Budget rental trucks.
The gear allegedly includes some ex-Media Options kit that is supposed to be transferred to CMYKhub after it was confirmed as the new owner of the failed Datta-owned company, when a Sureprint counter-bid was near-unanimously rejected by creditors on August 28.
[Related: CMYKhub wins Media Options battle]
Sources tell ProPrint that at the same meeting, creditors were told equipment was being moved to the new business.
The sources say at least the Gartmore Avenue, Bankstown site which housed Sureprint and Sydney Print Hub has been cleared out and equipment also taken from other sites a few doors down.
Sources believe Sureprint has been ‘dragged through the mud’ by negative publicity and is too tainted by the Media Options fiasco, so Datta is setting up STP in an attempt to start afresh.
None of the big three paper companies are supplying STP after KW Doggett stopped dealing with all Datta-related entities last year. Spicers and BJ Ball are said to have pulled out years ago.
Many printers have received emails from Datta offering printing deals at ‘ridiculous prices’ that are specifically aimed at luring customers away from CMYKhub, saying ‘there is a definite opportunity to save $10,000 or more in a year by not sending all jobs to CMYKhub’.
The STP deals offer discounted job ‘vouchers’ printers can buy in advance and use as they need them, and if unsold after 90 days STP will buy them back at 90 per cent of their original value.
The STP website claims printers can charge an up to 100 per cent mark up on many products such as flyers and DL printing.
Sources say even with low prices and phone calls direct from Datta himself, most printers do not want anything to do with him or any related entities.
When contacted by ProPrint, Datta claimed to only be a ‘consultant’ for Sureprint and therefore STP and said his sister-in-law Chandra is the one in charge.
“She’s my boss,” he says. Chandra offered a no comment to ProPrint.
Datta signs himself as ‘business development’ in emails soliciting business from printers.
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