The Focus brand will live on as the name of Mark Shergill’s growing print empire, as he plans to bundle it and his five other businesses into a company spanning three states named Foucs Print Group.

Finally making a statement after almost three weeks of negotiations, Shergill says he has bought the client list and major assets and will relocate a large amount of Focus equipment into its South Strathfield facility down the road from his Print Warehouse site on Dunlop Street.

He tells ProPrint the plan in the short term is to lease the South Strathfield site once it is sold by liquidators along with Matraville, to facilitate consolidation from other sites, and later move everything into the Print Warehouse factory.

The plan also sees the $12m Wollongong facility close just months after opening, prompting the Industry Department to confirm it has, under the terms of the agreement, already begun efforts to recover the $6.1m grant that helped finance the project.

At 20 per cent of the total $30m aid package for the Illawarra region, which followed the decision by BlueScope Steel to close its Port Kembla facility, it is unclear how much taxpayers money will go down the drain.

This is not expected to impact on Shergill's business as he did not buy the plant itself, just some of the equipment in it.

Shergill also says Focus’ new $8m Canberra site, opened in November last year, is not part of the deal and he does not know what former chief executive David Fuller plans to do with it. Fuller could not be reached for comment, but ProPrint understands production has ceased and staff have been locked out of the site by the administrators with the locks changed.

The Matraville and South Strathfield factories are already due to be auctioned by CBRE on May 13. The first creditors meeting is slated to take place the same day.

[Related: The demise of Focus Press]

The new entity will be called Focus Print Group and include Shergill’s other companies – BPA Print Group, Print Warehouse, NewTone, Trodel-Docucopy, and Dynamic Print Communications – which operate from sites in Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast.

Shergill assures Focus clients that it will be business as usual under the new company and that they should be confident in the service they will receive going forward.

“Work will no longer need to be transported across multiple sites for various finishing processes which will now be more streamlined, cost and time effective,” he says.

“We have excellent sales and customer service, pre-press and production team that have moved across to the new company and are excited and dedicated to the future success of the business.”

Shergill says he has retained some Canberra staff to continue to service the ACT and wants to look after the remaining staff and get on with the business at hand to create a positive environment where the company can succeed as a team.

“While it is a shame when a business is no longer able to operate, the acquisition of Focus Press affords us an opportunity in the current difficult climate to expand our business with caution while providing jobs, security and a belief in the future of the industry as a whole,” he says.

“We are confident that we now offer the most extensive range of printing and manufacturing in Australia, so who said ‘manufacturing in Australia is dead?’”

Shergill says he will work with liquidators at Worrells Solvency and Forensic Accountants, who were called in last night to wind up what is left of the $40m-a-year printer.

Belinda Griggs, AMWU NSW assistant regional secretary says Fuller has so far refused to meet with the union, but that of Focus' 22 unionised employees, six have found jobs elsewhere in the industry, and a few others had accepted jobs from Shergill that they expect will be full time, though others had turned him down.

“There’s still work out there in printing so that’s good news,” she says.

Workers received their termination letters in the mail earlier this week and say Fuller has told them to seek entitlements through the General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme, which will now be possible as Focus has entered liquidation.

Shergill is a 30-year print industry veteran, having started from scratch with a two-man operation in a shop front in Marrickville as Jamar Printing. 

The business grew and moved to its first warehouse in Botany and was joined by a third partner.

Since his two business partners retired, Shergill has run the company with his family and continues to grow the business, buying his now fifth distressed print company in the past year.

“With our head office in Sydney and manufacturing across three states including in Queensland and Victoria, the future is looking bright,” he says.

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