Mark Shergill has bought the client list of collapsed Sydney printer AP & Prior Print, which went into liquidation last month with debts of more than $200,000.
Focus Print Group general manager Susan Smart says the acquisition, which includes the name, artwork and other intellectual property, will add to the company’s offset business.
“On hearing that the printer had gone into liquidation Mark Shergill approached the administrator – he is a guy who is always open to new ideas and when an opportunity presents itself, he does not hesitate,” she says.
“We are an offset printer and we can amalgamate Prior’s client list with ours and offer them better services and keep the customers happy.
“Since most of the equipment was under finance, and those which were not financed will be auctioned, we did not get any of the machines. Also the employees were already laid off before we got to the business.”
[Related: More mergers and acquisitions]
It is Shergill’s eighth acquisition in two years and the third this year, having just entered the wide format market by buying Whitehorse Digital and Printing.
Liquidator Geoffrey Davis at BCR Advisory says there are less than 50 trade creditors and that director Kurt Christensen ‘has done everything above board’ and largely kept up with employee entitlements.
However, multiple sources have raised questions to ProPrint about the size of the debts, how much is owed to employees, the fate of a Komori Lithrone press, and the relationship between Christensen and Davis.
ProPrint is investigating if there is indeed more to this story.
AP & Prior, based in Brookvale on Sydney’s northern beaches, printed offset brochures, magazines, presentation folders, posters, flyers, stationery and labels on a Komori Lithrone press.
It also printed digital, wide format point-of-sale and banners, and offered finishing including cello glazing, creasing, and diecutting.
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