Melbourne-based packaging printer Equity Packaging has been placed into liquidation following a petition by the Australian Tax Office (ATO), which is owed around $380,000 from the business.
Liquidators say that six of the ten employees will continue in a "limited capacity" while the business completes a small portion of work in progress and are expected to be re-employed by a likely purchaser of some of the company’s equipment. There have been four redundancies at this stage. The majority of the entitlements of employees are covered by the GEERS scheme, according to liquidators.
Andrew Yeo of Pitcher Partners who was appointed official liquidator says he is currently in negotiations with a “major customer” of the company to purchase the printing and laminating assets – which includes an eight-colour flexo press and two laminators – as well as two of its seven slitters.
Yeo says, “Continued trading will be limited to completing a small portion of work or until such time that is beneficial to the creditors of the company and maintaining customer relations with the customer that we are currently in negotiations with in regards to the sale of the assets.”
The liquidators add that the failure of the company remains subject to ongoing investigation however the case emphasises the importance of all company directors acting proactively and acting early in dealing with their financial difficulties.
Yeo continues, “An earlier approach to an insolvency practitioner may have allowed other options to trade the business out of its difficulties to have been explored.
“The majority of insolvency practitioners like Pitcher Partners would prefer to spend their time exploring ways to rescue businesses rather than just wind them up.”
