Furious Perth printers have slammed failed print broker Neil Clark and the reasons he gave for the demise of his six-year-old business WPM.
ProPrint reported on the liquidation of WPM after Clark revealed his company’s collapse on website LinkedIn, claiming ‘a fast downturn in government and mining spend’ was the reason behind its failure.
However printers in WA have been in contact with ProPrint and say Clark did not pay his debts whilst continuing to take on big clients, and unfairly blamed economic conditions for the closure.
WPM’s creditors list – which reads like a who’s who of printing in Western Australia – reveals debs topping $166,000, with 34 different printing or print associated businesses among the 86 creditors owed money, with big names such as CMYKhub, Kalamazoo and Advance Press owed sums.
Managing director WA printer Printstuf Brenton Hall, who WPM owes some $13,000 in bad debt, says brokers like Clark tell a ‘sob story’ about their demise instead of admitting fault.
“It is the same old story, printers get used by brokers who tell a sob story of being forced to close due to economic conditions, as he said,” says Hall.
“We printed work for him previously and he failed to pay us out to 90 days, but we got paid in the end. But later on Clark came to us asking to do printing for him, Neil advised us that everything with WPM was okay and we would be paid on account in 30 days.”
“Neil Clark's word was not worth anything, all he tried to do was collect his money from his clients in seven days and not pay us, leaving us as at a big loss,” he added.
[Related: Print broker goes bust]
Another local WA printer who is also owed thousands says WPM took too many clients on board despite having a trail of debt. The printer tells ProPrint Clark’s business had been declared bankrupt before in the past, trading under a different name.
All printers ProPrint contacted were of the firm belief they would never see a cent of the money owed. One Perth print business owner told ProPrint ‘there’s no point chasing bad money’.
WPM (West Print Management) was active from August 12 2010, it was the trading name of the Rankine Family Trust and the Trustee for the Clark Family Trust.
Among the creditors are:
Printstuf – $13,139
Daniel’s Printing Craftsmen – $12, 400
Dataflow – $10,567
Imatec – $8606
Optima Press – $7083
Quickmail – $4229
Bokay Signage- $3669
CMYKhub – $2983
Advance Press – $1680
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