Chief executive Richard Allely said that the company had originally aimed to donate $50,000 but generosity from within the company and among its customer base helped increase that target.

Alley told ProPrint that after the board signed off the $50,000 donation in early January, he sent a group email to the company’s 1,800 Australian employees.

“Within less than 10 hours, it bounced to the UK and the US and within 24 hours I had major international customers commit $10,000 worth of donations.”

PMP staff have also pledged to the appeal, and the company is holding the book open as payroll deductions are expected to continue until the end of February.

Staff of the print group were among the victims of the floods, including “two people who have lost everything”, said Allely.

Allely has visited the flood-sticked area and said it was “like nothing I have seen in this country”.

“I have been up there in and I am gobsmacked,” he said.

Allely said he hoped the donation would put the challenge to other companies to donate.

“I don’t want this to come across as PMP trying to big note ourselves because we donated this money. The idea is to create some groundswell of [donations] from the print community.”

He added: “PMP have taken a position as an industry leader to be the major contributor to the relief fund, and if any organisation wants to match that, bring it on.”

Last June, PMP raised $100,000 for charity Youth Off The Streets. 

Other companies within the wider print sector to have made large donations to the Queensland flood appeal include Fuji Xerox Australia, which has put in $50,000, the AMWU ($20,000), and the Australian Women’s Weekly ($100,000)

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