For the past four weeks the situation has become increasingly surreal, with the firm saying one thing and the staff and customers saying the opposite.

Sadly, the only thing that seems certain is that all three look set to lose: the company its credibility, the staff their jobs and the customers a trusted supplier.

While the whys and wherefores of the company’s ills will emerge as the administrator tries to unravel what happened and what can be done to secure a return for the creditors, one thing is clear – judging by the number of calls and emails to PrintWeek, there appears to have been a massive communication breakdown.

To give the company’s management the benefit of the doubt, the past few weeks have clearly been a nightmare as they fight to save the business – so perhaps it’s understandable that regularly communicating to staff and customers what’s happening when the situation changes so rapidly is difficult to say the least.

However, with reports of major clients having no contact from the company for weeks and previously loyal staff and customers voting with their feet I can’t help but think that the financial fire-fighting may
ultimately have been a lost cause.

It looks like any hope of any part of the company surviving are dwindling almost as fast as the goodwill it took Ron and Peter Alderson 55 years to build up.

– Darryl Danielli, Editor, PrintWeek