Five Star Print - one of South Australia's most high profile print companies - has collapsed into voluntary administration less than a year after it shut down part of the business following a dispute over a digital press.
Administrators from BRI Ferrier have called the first meeting of creditors in Adelaide on Thursday.
The award-winning company based at Netley in Adelaide’s south-west has been at the centre of a long-running dispute over an allegedly faulty digital press that last year led to MD Carolyn Cagney closing down the company's Graf-X division.
At the time, Cagney said she had been forced to wind up Graf-X because of a dispute over a NexPress but said the Five Star Print business would continue under another entity – Toneblock.
The 'faulty' claim was vigorously denied by the supplier, who said the press was certified by the manufacturer as “100 percent in working condition.”
“There’s nothing wrong with the machine as far as we’re concerned,” said a spokesman. “We believe most of the trouble came from operator error. "
"This has cost me millions and millions of dollars," Cagney said at the time. "The machine was atrocious and the work it produced was not commercially acceptable."
Established over 20 years ago, Five Star Print had grown from a two-person operation to being one of the largest print companies in South Australia, with a staff about 40. The doors to the company's facility at Netley are now closed and the Five Star Print website has been taken down.
The first meeting of creditors of Toneblock (trading name: Five Star Print) will be held at the offices of BRI Ferrier, Level 4, 12 Pirie Street, Adelaide on Thursday, June 2 at 11.00am.