So far Quality Print Group has unsecured creditors of $8.3m, none of whom are likely to see any money. In addition its main bank and secured creditor the NAB is still owed $4.5m. The Canty’s Dural mansion, was auctioned off for $4.8m earlier this month, after it was listed for $7m. Canty also sold the Quality print business to the Selig brothers earlier in the month for an undisclosed sum.
Furthermore the $8.3m unsecured creditors total is certain to rise, with more companies yet to make their claims, for instance one engineering company yet to appear on the list is thought to be have been owed $280,000 for the past 18 months. Biggest unsecured creditor is the country’s second largest paper merchant CPI, in for $3.5m, with Canty’s friend John Galloway’s paper merchant Angus Agencies out of pocket to the tune of $1.5m. Heading the long list of the rest is plate supplier Fujifilm, owed $118,000.
Total company assets are zero, as is realisable value from the company, and as the building was leased, and the kit has been sold to CaxtonWeb, unsecured creditors are likely to see zero cents in the dollar.
The demise of the 20 year old Quality Print Group is Paul Canty’s second significant print company collapse, with Finepress sinking in the 1980s.
Quality Print Group took on extra liabilities 18 months ago when it bought its second web press, a pre-owned Goss M600 and bindery equipment, from an English company, which was itself in liquidation. Canty then moved into a new factory to accommodate both webs and the additional binding kit.
The Quality collapse caps the worst quarter for print businesses in Sydney in living memory, with a host of well known names going under, headed by Pettaras Press, Chippendale, Macdonald & Masterson and Beaver Press. The commercial print sector in the other capital cities of Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide does not seem to have been so badly affected, although there have been other notable failures such as Paragon Printing in Albury.
Paul Canty has no ongoing connection or equity participation with CaxtonWeb.
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