Sydney contract printer MPD Printing has gone into voluntary liquidation following pricing pressures in its core ethnic and expat newspaper markets.

A statement by insolvency and advisory firm Jamieson Louttit & Associates says the move will “enable a structured sale” of the business.

The 32-year-old coldset newspaper printer, which turns over $9 million a year, has an estimated $3 million-worth of capital equipment which “has tied the cashflow”.

Managing director Linda Tenenbaum sys pressures on pricing and increases in key costs had continued unabated: “The printing industry as a whole is experiencing a difficult and increasingly volatile economic environment,” she says. “Both frequency and page counts of press runs have been adversely impacted by cost-cutting efforts in consumer industries and imports.”

Jamieson Louttit & Associates is inviting expressions of interest in purchasing the business. “The printing industry has been impacted by new alternative printing techniques, but there are many instances where coldset printing can achieve better results,’ says Jamieson Louttit.

He says MPD achieved “significant efficiencies” during 2014 and “turned to the creation of a new market for news print, becoming printer of choice for designers, design students, artists, theatre grouops, writers, poets and other creatives seeking to use the edgy, tactile qualities of news print in new an interesting ways”.

Established in October 1982 as Marrickville Newspapers, the business started with a four-unit Goss Community web press and basic typesetting, photographic and plate-processing equipment, and established a reputation for quality newspaper printing.

It has relocated twice, changing its name to Marrickville Print & Design and – with a move to the current premises in Alexandria in 2005 – to MPD. A first purchaser of Tensor press equipment in 2002, it now has six four-high towers in two presslines. Customers include financial newspaper the Financial Times.

Details from Jamieson Louttit & Associates phone 02-9231 0505 or email enquiries@louttit.com.au