Takeover specialist Mark Shergill of Focus Print has snapped up the client list of collapsed Sydney printer AP & Prior Print.
Art and Print Management, which traded as AP & Prior Print at Brookvale in Sydney’s north, was placed into liquidation last month with debts of more than $200,000 owed to about 50 trade creditors, including paper merchant KW Doggett. Three employees were dismissed at the time and there were plans to auction off any machines that were not financed.
Shergill says he read that AP & Prior had gone into liquidation and shortly afterwards approached liquidators Geoffrey Davis and John Morgan of BCR Advisory.
“We put in an offer about three weeks after the company went into liquidation and a short time later we heard that offer had been accepted,” said Shergill. “We’ve taken the name, the artwork and the client list. Most of the machines had already been sold off. They do similar kinds of work to us and we’re always looking to build the business. Time will tell if it can help.”
AP & Prior printed offset brochures, presentation folders, magazines, labels, stationery and flyers on Komori Lithrone press. This latest add-on complements Shergill’s well-established offset business.
Focus Print Group released a brief statement about the acquisition:
Focus Print Group continues its growth by purchasing the Intellectual Property of troubled printer AP & Prior Print.
When Mark Shergill upsized to the current premises in 2013, he had an acquisition plan in mind and he continues to add businesses that he feels are a good fit to the continued growth and expansion of his business model.
The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Shergill, who took over Focus Print in 2014, has acquired a number of other businesses since then, including Rainbow Printing, BPA Print Group, Print Warehouse, NewTone, Trodel-Docucopy, Dynamic Print Communications and Whitehorse Digital.
"If something comes up we'll take a look at it, but there's nothing else on the horizon at the moment," said Shergill.
The diverse group operates along the length of the east coast with sites in Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast.