Following a meeting with the fourth set of administrators on Friday Mark Shergill decided to move production onto his Print Warehouse presses to allow for the forthcoming auction of the building and machinery.
Shergill, who was operating under an agreement with previous owner David Fuller, was also able to move some of the production team over to Print Warehouse. Shergill claims that he has been able to hold onto around 20 jobs despite what industry sources are calling a high-handed move on the part of administrators. Ironically this development comes as Shergill adds yet another business to his growing east coast print empire, finalising the purchase of Queensland's PurePrint.
The Acacia Ridge-based company will continue to operate as part of the new Focus Print Group with its current general manager Robert Mellor and 12 staff. Shergill is quickly developing a reputation for buying companies in distress and turning them into profitable and successful ventures. His chance to salvage Focus has come under serious fire, however, as administrators now intend to auction off the remaining equipment in the coming weeks.
Shergill (pictured) stresses that Focus Print Group is still up and running, with production shifted to the Print Warehouse site. He explains to Print21 that he moved in quickly and struck a private deal with David Fuller to prevent exactly this kind of situation.
“I’ve seen what happens when the administrators get in and try to run a printing business. When I bought BPA the administrators had been already been in for about six weeks. I thought, if I get this done fairly quickly and it’s only closed for a week and half, I can save more of it. The more we can keep the business going, the more we can try to save basically. Customers, staff, jobs, the whole thing,” he says.
Nonetheless Shergill remains committed to customers and "the longevity of the print industry." Speaking with Print21, Shergill reveals that the decision to pick up the PurePrint business in fact predates his involvement with the Focus Press deal. He explains that both purchases add their own unique value to what is now his national printing brand.
“We wanted to create a strong presence in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, one in Melbourne and one in Sydney. We’ve completed that now. We’ve already got Dynamic Print up in Queensland, the plan is to eventually merge the [PurePrint] business with the Gold Coast site to get more production happening there,” he tells Print21.
The PurePrint buy also secures the site’s two Komori presses, a 440 and a 526, which Shergill will continue to operate before going on to consolidate production with the old Dynamic Print business. The deal follows the previous owner, 72-year-old Hans, heading into retirement.
This brings the running total up to seven printing companies picked up in last few years or owned by Shergill, including the Focus deal which remains up in the air. The new Focus Print Group includes his Sydney-based Print Warehouse and what remains of Focus, in Melbourne NewTone, BPA and Troedel Print, and in Queensland Dynamic Print and now PurePrint.