David Fuller widens his Focus

Sydney’s leading enviro printer picks up Greenloch Print Essentials from the administrator Hall Chadwick.

Continuing his strategy of expansion during the downturn, Fuller bought the Tom Szabo’s family-owned company after it went bust. The Mascot facility will continue to operate as a separate business unit from the main Focus Press plant at South Strathfield under former sales manager, Jason James as GM.

According to David Fuller the Greenloch staff had already been let go by the administrator when he came on the scene and had not received any superannuation for over six months. Fuller has tried to contact and re-hire as many as possible. “I didn’t get to them in time, they’d been paid off. We’re trying to do the right thing by them,” he said.

He described the purchase as “a pretty good fit and pretty good timing. We’re fairly busy at the moment, bursting at the seams really and we need the extra capacity.”

The Greenloch equipment, a mix of Heidelberg and Komori presses with MBO finishing, is compatible with the larger production capacity of the main site. Fuller described the type of work being done as complementary to Focus’. The deal was for the equipment only, not the business. Szabo’s proposed purchase of a Heidelberg 10-colour perfecting press is now off the agenda.

Not surprising Fuller intends to lift the Greenloch site, now to be known as Focus Press City, to the same level of environmental excellence he has pioneered at the original plant. As an example he maintains that although the site had worked to reduce its waste it still has costs of $12,000 per year. “I’ll bring that down to $400 per year. It’s how we operate,” he said.

The Greenloch buy is the second takeover almost to the year for Focus Press, which last year picked up the Sydney operation of Sunshine Coast printer, Fast Proof. The company is now over 100 employee-strong.