A long list of On Demand trade creditors will almost certainly get none of their money back, with the failed printer’s debts totalling about $11m.
In what is officially the second-biggest printing collapse of the year behind Focus Press, what was once Australia’s biggest digital printer has only $300,000 in realisable assets, according to the report to creditors.
The scale of On Demand’s spectacular collapse explains the number of angry suppliers who have been grumbling for many months about the company’s long-running inability pay bills on time.
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The list of 170 creditors and 76 employees reads like a who’s who of the Melbourne printing scene, with companies like Avon Graphics, BPO Print, Coreprint, Discus On Demand, Dynamic Direct, Embassy Print, Gippsland Trade Printers, Industrial Printing Co, Labelmakers, Magnify Media, and Marsh Media all out of pocket.
Most printers saw the writing on the wall and managed to get off relatively cheaply for four or low five-figure sums, but suppliers were burned hard with huge unsecured losses.
HP was the worst hit, owed $2.9m, only $350,000 of which is secured. Others include Fuji Xerox, owed $344,000; Canon $323,000; Currie Group $264,000; Spicers $150,000; Toll $126,000; and DHL Express $52,681.
Ability Press, whose director Michael Wu is part of the three-man consortium behind Production Printing Australia (PPA), which is licenced to trade as On Demand while liquidators try to sell the business, is owed $127,000.
Financial institutions are as usual owed significant funds, the National Australia Bank (NAB) is owed more than $2.7m, $2.4m of which is secured; Eagle Financial Solutions $139,700; and accounting firm Paul V Rush $122,000.
With NAB owed such a hefty sum, it is likely to be the only creditor to get any of its money back unless the liquidators make a huge deal for the On Demand business.
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The 76 employees are owed just over $1m between them, a cost that will likely be borne by the taxpayer through the Fair Entitlement Guarantee scheme, and include managing director Bruce Peddlesden and three members of his family.
The liquidator says while it has ‘not adopted’ Peddelsden’s licencing agreement with PPA, it has reached an agreement with the new entity for it to keep trading ‘while an urgent sale campaign is undertaken’.
PPA will be responsible for all expenses, including rent and wages, from after On Demand entered liquidation.
The first creditors meeting is 10.30am on Friday November 14 at the Seasons Bontanic Gardens Hotel in Melbourne.
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