Crowd funding bid to salvage Paperlinx jobs

07 April 2015

Paper

A plucky former Paperlinx UK employee has set up a crowd funding campaign in an attempt to buy back part of the business and restore some of the jobs lost at the business.

The ex-employee, whose identity is known to PrintWeek but who has asked to remain anonymous for the time being, initially set a target of £5m, but revised this down to £500,000 in the hope that it would be a more achievable sum.

"I couldn't just see the business disappear overnight and I have friends whose pitches have gone viral, so I thought let's give it a go to try to save the business,” he told PrintWeek.

“After some feedback I decided to lower the amount which would enable people not to be put off by such a large target and to enable overfunding. I am hoping to be able to enlist a suitably experienced management team if it's successful."

The project, ‘Buyback Paperlinx UK and help to save 700 UK jobs’ is listed on the Crowdfunder website. It had received pledges for £65,162 at the time of writing and has until 19 May to reach the £500,000 target.

Administrators from Deloitte laid off 693 Paperlinx UK employees and closed 14 out of 19 branches last week.

The companies placed into administration by Deloitte includes a number of notable names in UK paper merchanting. The complete list is:

Contract Paper

Howard Smith Paper

Howard Smith Paper Group

The M6 Paper Group

The Paper Company

PaperlinX (Europe)

PaperlinX (UK)

PaperlinX Brands (Europe)

PaperlinX Investments (Europe)