Sydney Binding Acoro heading offshore

The centrepiece Muller Martini Acoro A7 perfect binding line at closed Sydney Binding is heading overseas, but the buyer says it has smaller binders that would be well suited to the Sydney market.

The closure of Sydney Binding has left NSW without a long-run perfect binding line, meaning printers in Sydney who want jobs perfect bound will have to ship the work down to Marvel Binding in Melbourne, which is the only line open for the trade in the country.

However, Toni Brown, managing director of UK dealer Bindery Machine Services, said, “This could be an opportunity for someone in Sydney. We know Wayne Easthaugh and Marvel well, he has a great operation, but for those that do not have the time to ship jobs to Melbourne and back having an option in Sydney would be good. That could either be in-house or in a trade operation.”

While BMS bought much of the kit, it did not take the support binder, the Acoro A5. Much of the equipment had been up for sale for a couple of months before BMS stepped in. Brown said, “We have binders available now, in great condition, that we can ship over. We will either use our own engineers if restrictions are eased, or use Roman Beeler and the Muller Martini team if not."

Sydney Binding is currently finishing its existing jobs before permanently closing its doors. The company had around two dozen staff, with one of the owners Peter Halter telling Print21 that “It was Covid that got us. Trade shrank and we could not see it getting back to levels we needed to grow the business.”

Along with Halter, the other owners of Sydney Binding were John McPherson, Emeh Freelingos and George Austin. The company was created five years ago but has a six-decade heritage. It was formed through the merger of McPherson Binding and Graphic Bookbinding, which came through a tightening market in 2015. McPherson Binding was established in 1979, while Graphic Bookbinding has been around since 1963.