Mackay-based Digimax Printing has gone into liquidation owing hundreds of thousands of dollars as the plunging price of coal takes its toll across Queensland.
Mackay-based Digimax Printing has gone into liquidation owing hundreds of thousands of dollars as the plunging price of coal takes its toll across Queensland.
“We went from boom to bust inside six months,” said former co-owner and co-director Andrew Matsen, who established Digimax with his wife and fellow owner/director Letitia in 2004.
“Coal drives this town and we grew on the back of the mining boom as the whole of Mackay went through a big growth phase. But Mackay is very reliant on the mining industry and when the coal prices dropped so much then everything just suddenly stopped. A lot of our clients were either mining-based or reliant on the coal industry."
Digimax closed its doors earlier this month and liquidators are still sorting through the creditors list.
The Matsens' separate signage business Blair Signs & Safety was saved when Brisbane-based VMG Print Group stepped in to buy some of the equipment and the intellectual property, including the client list and trading name.
Blair, established 45 years ago, is now a division of VMG, which operates as Markit Graphics and has manufacturing facilities in Brisbane and Melbourne.
“My wife and I are very lucky to still have jobs in the industry,” said Matsen. "We once had 18 staff but were down to eight when we were forced into liquidation. Now, just five of us are staying on at Blair Signs, which will continue to trade under the same name. I do want to stress that our customers are being taken care of.
“I should have realised what was happening and I’ve got to take some responsibility for it but the fact is that no-one really saw it coming," said Matsen. "Two years ago you couldn’t find a building to rent around here in the Paget industrial area but the last time I checked an online rental site there were 36 pages of buildings available in Mackay. More than 20,000 people are said to have left town in the past couple of years and I’m not even sure that we’ve hit rock bottom yet. Things have been hard up here and multiple businesses have gone down. I know Townsville and Rockhampton are facing a similar situation.
“People say that business is booming in Australia but the fact is, it is just not. There are still opportunities around but for those you have to be willing to take risks and less people are willing to do that these days.”