In two months’ time I hit printer’s nirvana – the state of owning all my equipment with nary a lease or rental in sight. It is going to be so good. This time last year I was busy working as a profit transferal system for the ATO and various banks and finance companies. Sometimes at the end of the year I would ask my accountant if I made so much money last year where is it? But then I remembered that at least part of it was safely in the NAB’s profit figures and the rest the ATO gave to Focus Press.

Back in 2007/8 I decided I needed to invest in new gear for almost every part of the business. The best thing Kevin Rudd did was introduce the 50 per cent upfront deduction on new equipment purchased in that year and I took full advantage, grabbing a guillotine, folders, digital presses and mailing lines. I also saved a heap of tax.

I had leases before of course and it had annoyed me that they came in and out of the business at differing times, depending on when we had bought the kit. A lease would end and before you could have a celebratory ale to farewell it you realised you still had ten more going.

This time I wanted it to be different. Having realised the advantages of buying equipment in bulk, I wanted to make sure all my leases ended at roughly the same time. November 2014 was the big month, and I sorted almost all my leases accordingly, making some finance departments give me odd 39 month leases.

As an aside I never go over 48 months and I never leave a balloon with my leases. A lease payment is a handy guide that reminds you how many real dollars you have to make each month to get your ROI, and reducing the monthly payment with a balloon lulls you into believing your monthly expenses are lower than they actually are. And I also know of a few printers with 15-25 per cent balloons coming up they don’t have the cash for and that are more than their presses are worth on GraysOnLine. Scary.

So now the leases are gone, what to do with the extra breathing space? I have already been looking at upgrading our digital colour press but to be honest none of the candidates are so impressive I have to have them. And I get the feeling the lease on my next digital press will need to be a more difficult 36 months to allow for the devastating impact the Landa machines are going to have when they arrive, so I’m just not that keen to jump back in.

I am tending towards just taking a repayment holiday for at least twelve months. Back before digital presses accelerated the speed of upgrades my father took a 10 year lease holiday after paying off his Heidelberg presses. The money he made then set him up for life.

But aside from the financial benefits of a lease-free year, I’m looking forward to not having the stress. That worry about making sure there is enough cash in the account to feed the finance company that keeps you up at night – I could do with a break from it.

Last time I had some time to think and some money to spend I put together the plan that has kept us going and growing these last five years. And ultimately that is what this plan to tie all my leases up at once was all about – sure I have bought my self some breathing space money wise, but what I have really done is given myself the time to come up with another five year plan and reinvent the business again, and when I do go back to the equipment market I will do it with my maximum buying power ready to back the plan.

I am looking forward to the break, but I am looking forward to that more.

Baden Kirgan is managing director of Jeffries Printing Services and Black House Comics

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