Sale the only answer for Nexus Print Solutions

Less than two years after its merger, South Australian company, Nexus Print Solutions, is up for sale, accumulating debts of $6 million.

Nexus Print Solutions was the result of Gillingham Printers purchasing van Gastel Pritning for $3.5 million in October 2006 and merging to form a new entity.

van Gastel Printing was a 28-year-old company and Gillingham over one hundred years old. But the new venture only made it to 18 months, owing to a "suffered leakage" from the takeover.

Nexus' managing director, Craig Thornquest, told media that price competition and new technologies was a further burden on the company. "Profitability and cashflow were put under pressure," he said.

At the time of the sale, owner, Jack van Gastel, said that he sold the business to Gillingham Printers as a survival tactic. "You either get big or get out," he said. "Competition is fierce and I feel that with the merger of the two companies we will be in a better position to attack."

van Gastel's hopes were recently quashed when PPB chartered accountants and business reconstruction specialists were called in as receivers and managers of the company which is now for sale in whole or in part as a going concern.

As a contractor, van Gastel's role with Nexus will be determined by the sale of the business. "It depends what happens to the company," he said.

Peter Macks of PPB explained the sale as part of a restructuring process for the company. "The business has been put up for sale as an option to facilitate some of the turnaround," he said.

Registrations of interest close on 9 May and, according to Macks, there has already been a healthy response to the sale. "In just over a week we have had several parties express their interest," he said.