MVP COLLAPSES AGAIN, OWES $1.36M

Controversial Melbourne print operation MVP Print has hit the skids again, the company closing down, and this time possibly for good, with its kit going for auction.

The general commercial printer has gone down with debts of $1.36m. It owes $81,000 to its nine staff, $556,000 to the ATO, another $120,000 to unsecured creditors, and $595.000 to its funders. It has assets of $18,000, plus whatever the auction brings in.

One local printer told Print21 he wasn’t getting paid, so took a drive over to the MVP Print site in Seaforth, only to be met by an auctioneer marking up the equipment for sale, and no sign of any staff.

MVP Print was the latest incarnation of what was originally Dark Horse Printing, established in 2005, which went into liquidation in 2019 with debts of $2m. Maverick Printing, owned by the finance of the owner of Dark Horse, came into being five weeks prior, and began operating from the old Longbeach Press premises in Seaford. It went broke two years later, and then became MVP Print, operating from the same premises. Rival print businesses in Melbourne were up in arms about the various reincarnations at the time, as they perceived the business to be shedding debt and carrying on.

MVP Print’s general manager until its sudden closure was Steve Roberts, the original owner of Dark Horse. His fiancée at the time, Sorcha Hopkins, was the sole shareholder of Maverick Print. She is the sole shareholder and director of MVP Print.

MVP Print’s equipment is now up on the Gallant auction site, with bidding closing on Friday. Among the equipment up going under the hammer are four-colour and two-colour Heidelberg SM52 presses, and a Heidelberg CTP system. There is also a raft of finishing equipment including three guillotines, three booklet-makers, a PUR binder, a folder, a pair of laminators, various ancillary equipment, and a Heidelberg cylinder press.