As Australian Printer went to press one of the country’s best known and most innovative print businesses was struggling to stay afloat and looking for buyers. Of three initial potential buyers in the running, one pulled out. Focus Press, owned by David Fuller, and with sites in Sydney (Matraville and Strathfield), Wollongong and Canberra has had a withdrawal of supply, with the country’s three main paper merchants no longer dealing with the company. As AP went to press Focus staff were idle, presses only running small jobs with existing paper. Factories were operating with skeleton staff. Focus Press group general manager Lee Barnsley dispelled industry rumours, categorically denying that the company is appointing administrators, and says there are no plans to do so.
David Fuller, owner of Focus Press
The company appears to have run into strife over its pricing policy, when it decided six months ago that its strategy would be to sell on quality not price. This cost it clients. It also dropped two dozen clients that were late payers. The crisis was precipitated when the country’s biggest paper merchant Spicers sent its staff into the Focus plants to take out its paper after Focus failed to repay the major part of a $2.3m bill. The previous day BJ Ball had ceased supply. KW Doggett ceased trading with Focus several months ago, with the two parties citing differing reasons for the cessation of trade. As Focus is a $40m company, it will be spending as much as $12m a year on paper, and as paper merchants can invoice with 90-day deadlines the paper bills could be up to six months overdue. Sources close to Focus’ suppliers say numerous other trade suppliers are owed big sums including Graphic Book Binding which is owed $80,000, Graphic Trade Services at $47,000, and Graphic Plus and TLC which are thought to be owed more than $200,000 between them.
Better days – Focus Press opens its Canberra facility: (l-r) David Fuller, owner; Andrew Barr, ACT deputy chief minister; and Ian O’Connor, general manager of Focus Press Canberra
Focus has huge press power within the one group; it has three long perfectors, a 12 colour in Wollongong, and ten colours in Strathfield and Matraville, as well as several other B1 presses. That had rival printers wondering how they filled the presses. Focus only opened a new $6.2m security printing operation in the Illawara this year, funded by a government grant aimed to stimulate employment in the area since the decline of the steelworks. This came on the back of a new $8m Focus Press Canberra facility which was opened in December last year, with the aim of boosting the group’s capacity by about 13 per cent. The Canberra business was built on the old PMP Canberra business, which Focus bought less than a year ago. Only a month ago Focus was in the running to buy a major Sydney offset printer. Focus won a reputation as an environmental champion over the years, which helped it win some hefty government and corporate accounts.
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