A source close to the directors of failed business The PrintCentre has blasted many of the claims made about the demise of the business and the behavior of those directors John Doyle and Darren Soppi.

According to information given to ProPrint nothing apart from personal items was removed from the factory by directors, no bank account codes were changed, the behavior of the directors was guided by the liquidators, and the chaos on Monday morning was caused by the liquidators arriving four hours later than planned. In addition the source says all super entitlements will be paid,

The PrintCentre went into administration a week ago, staff turned up for work last Monday to find the gates locked and no-one there. According to the ProPrint source the situation ended up being handled badly as the directors had been told that the liquidators would arrive at 9am promptly and staff would be informed at that time of what was going on, and how to claim their entitlements. However the liquidators did not arrive until after 1pm which left staff unsure as to what was happening.

Defending the directors the source says that this was not helped by one of the sales representatives apparently telling staff to ’take whatever they wanted’ and with the source claiming that at that that point some staff began ‘looting’ the office – placing computers and other items in their cars to take home – saying ‘it doesn’t say a lot for their morals’ and adding ‘those people were then advised by phone and text that the items needed to be returned or charges could be pressed’.

Blasting former staff they said not a high percentage of staff would fall under the banner ‘loyal’ when looking at the way some people responded to the situation.

Countering the claim that staff have been in the dark the source says that director John Doyle held a staff meeting three weeks ago to inform them of the dire state of affairs. They also blamed sales reps for not meeting their targets as contributing to the collapse.

The source also claimed that hundreds of thousands of dollars had been poured into the business over the past three years (allegedly more than $1m in the past 18 months) to try and keep it running, and said that neither director had received a salary for five years, saying that funds were gained by cashing in superannuation and selling of homes.  

Finally the source says ‘these are not guys who have ever lived the high life – these are guys who are did everything possible to keep the business afloat, keep their staff employed and are distraught by the turn of events.  This is not a decision that people make easily and it’s depressing that people try to make them out as the bad guys’.

ProPrint has received some angry comments from former staff, many of which we have not been able to publish.

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