Jason Signmakers steps in for WA’s Expo Group

The assets of troubled Western Australian printer Expo Group have been bought by long time operator Jason Signmakers with all 20 staff to be retained after administrators were called in.

Jason Signmakers managing director John Mancini says the new entity will trade under the name Expo Signage and Digital and will allow current Expo clients to tap into the knowledge base of the long term signage provider, which has operated since 1932.

The takeover will take Jason Signmakers staff numbers from 80 to around 100 and mean the company can now provide a complete print solution, from complex signage work right through to business to business print needs.

“The transaction was for all the assets and the people that want to stay and there is some good positive people,” Mancini told ProPrint.

“We will maintain the Expo brand because we believe there is a lot of value in that, it’s been around a long time.

“Expo’s origins come from printing and planned print and uncomplicated signage and a service of what I call the B2B channel, the commercial market, and we were not active there."

Jasons Signmakers' key operation areas include project work for the WA government and other commercial entities, including large scale road and facility sign projects, as well as design, fabrication and maintenance signage projects.

There are no plans to change Expo’s business model and operations yet with Mancini saying it was still early days, but the company’s express print service in Perth would continue to operate providing speedy business print jobs.

“We will maintain what we call a city based Express Service Centre that still allows all that instant print and signage solution but that will now be supported by the significant facilities of Jason’s for more complicated and detailed projects," he said.

Mancini put the financial troubles faced by Expo down to generally tough market conditions and a failure to launch a business diversification strategy quick enough to offset that pressure.

“The area of print has been in decline because of the rise and rise of digital and I think for most companies the need to diversify, to being a complete solution takes time and process and I think market conditions change quicker for them than their diversification strategy since they started going down that path and it takes time to build that,” Mancini said.

“My driving philosophy at Jasons is to constantly challenge ourselves with innovation and stay up to date with technologies which you have to in this industry.

Palisade Business Consulting administrator Paula Smith confirmed to ProPrint a creditors meeting will take place on Wednesday March 20 and that she expects the Expo Group will be placed into liquidation with no option of a Deed of Company Arrangement (DOCA) on the table.

“There is a creditors meeting on Wednesday and I would expect Expo would go into liquidation and then it’s just the normal liquidation process,” Smith told ProPrint.

Mancini said there were other interested parties in buying Expo’s assets which meant he had to move fast to keep the continuance of the business.

“This name was established just as they went into administration. We had to put a line in the sand because of some of the complex issues with the old entity which is not for me to comment on so to deal with speed and to keep the continuance it was decided to establish a new Expo company with a new shareholder,” he said.

 

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