The last piece of the Geon puzzle has fallen into place following the demise of the national group, with the announcement today that the group’s Tasmanian operations have been purchased by the well-known Todisco family, and will revert to their original trading name of Mercury Walch.
Michael Todisco, managing director of the family’s Mercedes Waratah operation, confirmed the family’s purchase and the name change, saying “Today we are pleased to announce that the newly rekindled Mercury Walch has acquired all Geon’s Tasmanian operations.
“Mercury Walch was the original trading name for Geon’s Tasmanian operations and it has a long and proud history in the Tasmanian, and wider Australian, print market. The Todisco family is committed to developing a sustainable business model for the company well into the future.”
Todisco says the acquisition of the Hobart-based operations is good news for Geon staff, the majority of whom are expected to accept employment with the new organisation as part of the deal.
The Todisco’s latest move follows the acquisition five years ago of the former Government Printing Office of Tasmania, at the time trading as Business Enterprise - The Printing Authority of Tasmania, which was renamed Print Applied Technology.
Since that time, the company has enjoyed ongoing success and has a number of significant print contracts in place. It employs some 40 locals producing what Todisco says is ‘the highest quality, fail-safe print services to the Tasmanian Government and private sectors’.
Print Applied Technology was the first investment for the Todisco family in Tasmania and Todisco says it demonstrated the ‘very real confidence’ the family has in the local printing industry. “This confidence has only grown over the last five years so, when an opportunity arose to increase our investment in the State, we moved swiftly,” he said.
“We look forward to bringing together two of Tasmania’s premier printing institutions, creating a strong and sustainable business platform to service customers across Australia both now and well into the future.”
The Geon Tasmania sale wraps up the dispersion of the Geon plants, with the closure of its Queensland operations, the sale of its NSW and VIC businesses to Blue Star, the sale of Perth to its management team, the sale of Geon Labels to Tom Sturgess, and the sale of Geon NZ to Blue Star NZ.
The second Geon creditors meeting will take place on Monday in Sydney, where the 400 or so creditors will discover how much of their cash they are likely to receive, although most are resigned to the answer being not much if anything at all.
