The company is still trying to get its Muller Martini binder and one of its MBO folders back online after they were damaged by vandals two weeks ago.

Staff returned to the Kingsgrove factory on the morning of 13 September to find it had been broken into and vandalised, including computer screens smashed with a sledgehammer, walls and equipment spray-painted, rubbish tipped across the floor and sinks left overflowing.

The greatest damage was dealt to its finishing equipment, which had been run into with a forklift.

Police are continuing to investigate the break-in, which occurred after the intruders broke down a steel plate on one of the site’s side doors.

Office manager Elessa Freelingos told ProPrint the company’s stitching and wire-binding operations are continuing to function, but that they still don’t know when the rest of their equipment would be operational again. The company has also processed a claim through their insurer.

“We’re operating at minimal capacity,” Freelingos said.

“We’re trying to find temporary measures to keep us going, but we’ve just got to wait for the machines to be repaired. It could be lengthy depending on the parts that need to be replaced and whether they can be manufactured in Australia or not. We just don’t know.”

Freelingos added that the company’s client base had been “very supportive” throughout the crisis.

“Some of them have been trying to give us jobs, but we’ve just had to ask some of them to be outsourced,” she said.

Freelingos said that the family-owned business has never experienced anything like it in its 48-year history.

“It’s very heartbreaking for us, but we’ll be back up,” she said.

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