ICSM Print Business: Print Week charts a summer of company collapses in an article 'not for the faint hearted'

By Harry Mottram: Print Week has been charting how many views its stories get during the summer and have found many of the most popular ones are about printing companies hitting the rocks. The article written by the reporters at the UK’s leading trade journal for the printing and allied trades suggested it wasn’t going to be an easy read with the headline: ‘August’s biggest stories not for the faint of heart.’

Top of the list of stories of gloom is the news of Precision Colour Printing in Telford who entered administration at the end of August making their workforce of 150 out of work just four months after the firm was acquire by Precision Colour Media. The sudden collapse followed only a few weeks since new owners took charge and seeing a departure of managing director Nick Evans and the finance director Nick Denning. When the doors shut at the factory several customers were left without their completed orders and had to appeal to other printers for help.

'...relying on one major customer is always a risk as it means a business is a hostage to fortune...' 

Another story on the Print Week website that had thousands of views was the demise of Tyne and Wear based commercial printing outfit Jasprint. The end came when the firm's largest customer went bust – ICSM understands that Simpson Print owed the company £63,785 which would have been a major blow resulting in the collapse. Ian Carrotte of ICSM said that relying on one major customer is always a risk as it means a business is a hostage to fortune with one bad debt causing a knock effect down the credit line.

'The scroll of doom compiled by Print Week also listed some eye-wateringly high debts...'

Further south Aylesbury high-volume mailing house GB Mail have been liquidated following its closure on July 3. Ian Stuart Turner reported for Print Week: “Lee Cotton and Richard Behagg of Robert Day and Company in Winslow, Buckingham were appointed joint liquidators of GB Mail Ltd last Tuesday (4 August), in a creditors’ voluntary liquidation.” Whether creditors will receive any cash is not yet known – but the 30 or so staff were all made redundant earlier this summer.

The scroll of doom compiled by Print Week also listed some eye-wateringly high debts left by a number of printing firms. They reported: “Derwent Displays owed its former owner £1.7m when it went into administration in July, Simpson Group left an estimated shortfall of more than £4m, including nearly £2.5m owed to trade creditors and Vanacomm has left a massive estimated shortfall of nearly £6m, raising further questions about previous statements from its shareholders about a supposedly orderly shutdown.”

^{Ian Carrotte of ICSM} 

ICSM’s Ian Carrott of the print credit intelligence group says there is sometimes a tendency for the managers and owners of firms to ignore the advice of their own accounts department. Some sales directors allow their focus to be on orders rather than payment in the short term and ignore the advice of their accounts department who can see the overdue invoices adding up said the CEO of ICSM. He said that it was a dilemma face by many firms but the best policy was to put clients on stop as soon as they fail to pay invoices on time.

For more from Print Week see https://www.printweek.com/ 

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