I’ve been wondering for a while now whether we have a rather peculiar claim to fame here on this small island. The subject of my conjecture is this: does John Madejski’s bankrolling of Goodhead Group (which includes Benhamgoodheadprint and Stones the Printers) represent the biggest investment in a printing company by a private individual anywhere in the world? Let’s face it, what Madejski is picking up the tab for down in Bicester and Banbury (but Bicester in particular) makes Felix Dennis’s £500k investment in Butler & Tanner look about as significant as a lucky dip flutter on the lottery. According to the Goodhead Group accounts to 31 May 2007, sales at the group fell 28% to £47.5m, and at the operating level the company made a whopping loss of £4.9m, compared to an operating profit of £1.9m the previous year. And that’s prior to restructuring costs and interest. To go backwards to the tune of almost £7m in a single year is pretty spectacular. But what really flew off the page was the collapse in gross profit, where the margin went from 21.4% to 14.5%. My Janet and John book of finance and accounting informs me that in a manufacturing business this is a likely indication of a number of perennial print problems: bad pricing, bad debts, or bad quality resulting in credit notes. Looking at the figures this is a business that appears to be losing about £1m a month – no wonder it is most often cited as putting in web offset prices so low that they are below the cost of production at other printers. They are below the cost of production! The directors’ report states that “the chairman [Madejski] has continued to fund the plans throughout with an injection of funds of £10m by way of loan during the financial year, and with a further injection of some £9m subsequent to the year end as part of his programme of financial support to the consolidation and expansion particularly of the web offset business”. What a munificent individual he must be. So that’s a cool £20m sunk and spent already, and I understand that Madejski’s commitment is actually north of £50m now.  Equally intriguing is how he will get his money back. Apparently the loan of £10m has interest charged at base rate plus 2% “on a payment in kind basis”. What on earth does that involve? The mind boggles. While he clearly isn’t short of the folding stuff – the latest Sunday Times Rich List puts Madejski’s wealth at a cool £400m – 50-odd million is still an awful lot of money. And combined with Reading FC’s relegation (the cost of relegation from the Premier League is estimated at £35m), he seems to be involved in some very costly hobbies.   Madejski obviously likes charitable pursuits, and I had a lovely cup of tea in his garden at the V&A the other week, but I’ve yet to hear of someone getting a knighthood for services to insolvent printing companies. So, back to my original question: does John Madejski’s bankrolling of Goodhead Group represent the biggest investment in a printer by a private individual anywhere in the world?