Following the closure of Fairfax’s sparkling new print site in Tullamarine the Kwik Kopy franchisee in the same suburb is also about to close its doors, entering voluntary administration on Friday.
Glenn Sykes, who took over as sole owner 18 months ago cites staffing and investment issues as the causes of his difficulties. He says print is a ‘tough business as it is’, but with the economic downturn and declining volumes, last year was worse than 2013 – when he took over the business from his partner.
“It was worse than the GFC, and when a business spirals down, it spirals pretty quickly. The last three months were disastrous. So the best thing was to seek administration before I acquired more debt,” Sykes says.
He says, “The business needed a change of direction and I took over the business to take it further, I wanted to expand our services into digital and was looking to get into the corporate sector. But the staff did not like the changes, and did not want to be retrained, so I lost 80 years’ worth of experience when two of my long term staff members decided to retire. To make matters worse a lot of the equipment failed, which I could not afford to fix or replace, which forced me to send jobs out, hurting the business further.”
The franchise first started in 1989, with Sykes and his former partner buying it after the GFC, Sykes then taking sole ownership 18 months ago. The business had four staff, although only one is still there. IN words that will resonate with small business owners everywhere he says, “I kept going thinking the business would climb up again, but the changes – staff retiring, training new staff with the economic downturn – did not work, and all of sudden it was just me doing everything.”.
Sykes says it was the ‘right thing to do’ to let the business go and now he sees himself spending more time with his young family.
Having been in the print industry since he was 16 years old his future is uncertain. “I don’t know where I will go next. I am already a dinosaur to get retrained in the printing industry, so for now I want to spend some time with my kids and regroup before I get out there again,” Sykes says.
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