Nearly a year and half on the wreckage of failed print partnership CBD Printing is finally getting put to bed. William Buck, liquidators, has been sifting through the financial debris since September 2012 when the Snap franchise hit the wall. CBD Printing was the largest Snap franchise in Australia, with four stores operating at the time.
Concerns have emerged that the painstaking administration has all but drained the coffers of the business with a major shareholder saying they expect to get nothing from the wind up. The debacle illustrates the difficulties for creditors getting any return once a business has been put into administration.
In late 2012 a deadly cocktail of spiraling debt, shareholder disputes and equipment over-capitalisation brought CBD Printing to its knees. CBD Printing operated four inner-city Snap centres; Sydney's Pyrmont, O'Connell St and Martin Place, and Melbourne's Docklands. Within days of the collapse Snap Franchising stepped in to issue new franchise agreements to the-then CBD chief executive, Richard Cook, who continues to operate them profitably. The prompt action restored the centres to normal operation, lifting them out of administration and saving a majority of jobs.
While the Snap centres have moved forward under the new ownership the unfortunate CBD Printing remains in liquidation nearly a year and a half later. Proceedings continue to drag out with the administrators, William Buck, issuing yesterday a notice of a creditors' meeting, scheduled for 11 am on May 6, 2014.
At the time of publishing William Buck has not returned Print21's calls.
CBD Printing was established in 2004 with the purchase of two Sydney CBD Snap franchises. In 2006 it won the Westpac digital print contract, which is renewed in 2009. In the same year it added the Pyrmont site, Docklands in Melbourne and Brisbane CBD, which was later sold in 2011. The administrators were voluntarily appointed by former CBD Printing boss and major shareholder Michael Palmer.