The company filled for administration in mid-May and has now been bought by the management team, fronted by managing director John Stewart. He says, “It presents a good investment, with a 35 year old company that has a great group of employees. The facilities have been maintained, but sadly 100 jobs have been lost due to administration.”

Stewart, an industry consultant, says the company has sourced sufficient funds, which will result in a substantial turnaround. He says, “We are currently resetting our strategy.”

Sema had a $102.6m turnover in 2008/09 with profit of 4.3m. However a year later, the last period for which figures are available, its turnover had dropped to $90.6m and that profit had turned into a $2.8m loss.

Sema recently joined the inkjet revolution with the purchase of a pair of Impika machines that represented a $10m investment. The purchase keeps Sema on the same playing field as competitors Salmat, which has two Oce inkjets, and Computershare with a pair of InfoPrint inkjets. Like its rivals Sema is aiming to put one each into Sydney and Melbourne.

Salmat’s transaction printing business, its BPO, is currently up for sale, with Australia Post in the tunning to buy it. Australia Post was the largest creditor for Sema, owed more than $3m. Fuji Xerox was another major creditor, it was owed around $1.1m following the sale of the high-volume French Impika iPrint75 inkjet web presses. Both companies have supported the Sema management buyout, indeed they encouraged it.

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