Print News | Packaging News | Wide Format news | Print | i-grafix | Australia, New Zealand and Asia Print and Packaging news from Australia, New Zealand and AsiaSome $3.5m raised at the Focus Press equipment auctions will make little headway to filling its $27.3m debt, owed to more than 200 trade creditors.
The cash raised by the GraysOnline sales will satisfy just 77.7 per cent of what Focus owes top creditor NAB, with everyone else still waiting for their money.
Furious bidding by rival firms saw items go under the hammer with last minute bids in several cases, for everything from presses to paper supplies, office furniture and the company barbeque.
The biggest sale, a 2005 Heidelberg Speedmaster SM102 10-colour sheetfed press, was picked up by a Victorian buyer for $471,100. Among the bidders were Brisbane and Sydney firms, including Focus Print Group managing director Mark Shergill.
A 2005 Heidelberg Speedmaster SM102 10-colour sheetfed press, went to a buyer from Croydon, Victoria, for $471,100
Shergill, who bought the Focus business and had planned to take on much of the kit before successive deals collapsed, managed to take home a 2007 Komori Lithrone LS1040P 10-colour press at its reserve price of $455,000, in the absence of other buyers.
A Rydalmere, NSW buyer also paid $358,700 for a 2009 Komori Lithrone LS-529 five colour press after beating rivals from Sydney and Ferntree Gully, VIC.
A few pieces of finishing equipment also sold for almost $100,000 including a Heidelberg Stitchmaster, bought by Shergill, and a Hohner HSB8000 saddle stitcher.
Shergill says he also picked up a cutting line, a couple of folders and some CTP and prepress gear. He says he is not yet sure where in his three-state print empire the kit will end up or if he will go after anything yet to be sold.
Still to be sold are a 2011 Fuji Xerox 1000 Colour Digital Press, a Nuvera 288 digital printer, XL75 10-colour press from the Matraville plant, two SG350 saddle stitchers, and a Polar 135 finishing set retained by their financiers for separate sales, along with the damaged KBA Rapida 105 12-colour press that is the subject of a $12.9m insurance claim.
Now that the kit is sold, the Strathfield South factory will go under the hammer on September 16 at 10.30am via CBRE, with the Matraville facility expected to follow soon.
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