Printer with Joycean links gets court protection

A HIGH Court judge has granted court protection to a well-known Dublin printing company which published the Belfast Agreement and has links to James Joyce’s novel Ulysses. It has run into difficulties, including the allocation of large State printing contracts to companies based abroad.

Wood-Printcraft Ltd was incorporated in 1961. The long-established printing businesses of Brindley Dollard, which originated in the 19th century and featured in a passage of Ulysses, and the Wood Printing Works, first established in 1837, merged with it in 1978. These businesses had survived the Famine, the Civil War, two World Wars and later economic downturns but had been “felled” by the present “economic depression”, Mr Justice Peter Kelly observed.

The judge said he was satisfied, on evidence put before him including the view of an independent accountant, there was a reasonable prospect of survival of the company, provided certain conditions were met, including restructuring, cutting staff and procuring a merger or investment.

Two serious expressions of interest had been received without the examiner even advertising for investors, he noted.

The judge said he was also influenced by the fact the company is a substantial employer in an area of high unemployment, Coolock, and had a policy of employing mainly local people, many of whom had 20-30 years’ service but would have little hope of alternative employment if the firm wound up.

At its peak, it employed some 310 people but that number was reduced as its fortunes changed.

The judge also took into account the company’s directors, members of the Ring and Daly families, had injected funds into it and had said they would make up any shortfall in cash flow if it occurred during examinership. He further noted there was no opposition to the application for protection from creditors, many of whom supported the petition, while various customers had also indicated they wished to continue doing business.

In those circumstances, he granted the application by Gary McCarthy, for the company, to appoint George Maloney as examiner. Mr McCarthy said a business plan prepared by the firm demonstrated it could return to profit.

In its petition, the company said its business was mainly commercial printing for large organisations including State agencies and banks, and it prospered particularly in the 1990s when US computer software companies were located here and had contracts to publish computer manuals.

Those companies’ requirements reduced dramatically in later years, leading to a situation where printing companies here were very dependent on the general commercial market which was itself declining. An oversupply of printers was exacerbated by large State tenders generally going to larger printing companies abroad.

The emergence of print brokers, who awarded contracts to the cheapest company, also contributed to the problems.

The loss of the State’s largest print contracts has led to the Government establishing a State procurement agency for printing, the company noted. On March 2nd, the company was approved by this agency and placed on its panel.

Without protection, it believed it would be unable to obtain paper and its business would have to cease within four weeks, it said.