Mercedes Waratah gets an interim license to run ‘Australia’s largest digital printer’ for the next six weeks.
Shock twist in the ongoing affairs of controversial Melbourne printing industry identity, Michael Wu, as he admits defeat by putting the Port Melbourne business into voluntary administration. As the majority shareholder in the struggling business, he maintains he’s been trying to find a buyer for the past few weeks without success.
In keeping with the byzantine history of Wu’s relationship with his former partners, the Aboughattas brothers, Moody and Abbey, the business they were all engaged in together, Docklands Ability Group, trading as Mercedes Waratah, will run On-Demand while the administrator tries to sell it. It’s understood Moody Aboughattas also has a stake in the company.
Wu said he had appointed Matthew Gollant of Rodgers Reidy in Melbourne as voluntary administrator to keep the business running while a buyer is sought. He blamed the failure on being unable to attract investment capital to what was once claimed to be ‘Australia’s largest digital printer.’ He had originally bought the business out of administration when former owner Bruce Peddlesden went broke.
“I am very disappointed. It’s very hard. I don’t know what to do now,” said a clearly distressed Wu who has blazed a startlingly brilliant path through Melbourne’s printing industry in the past few years. At one stage earlier this year in addition to being the majority owner of On-Demand, he was part owner of Docklands Ability Press in Lorimer Street with the Aboughattas after folding his own Abililty Press into the combined group. In addition he signed a heads of agreement with Josh de Groot to buy Longbeach Printing.
It all started to unravel when Abbey Aboughattas went public claiming Wu had not been fair dinkum about his situation when the Docklands Ability Press deal went down. He was summarily dismissed from the company and no longer appears in the records.
It now seems likely that the Aboughattas brothers will be in the box seat to pick up On-Demand from the administrator, as they’ll be running the business in the interim. Ironically Wu was also running On-Demand on behalf of Peddlesden when it went broke in 2014.
Suppliers will be taking a keen interest in the outcome as On-Demand is supposedly up to its eyes in trade debt. If it goes under, as appears likely, some of them are set for an enormous bath.
Note: The Melbourne-based On-Demand has no connection with the North Sydney-based On Demand Print Pty Ltd.