The company began trading earlier this month (1 November) and operates from one of the units on the old Aldersons Print Group (APG) site, which is being rented from the Aldersons pension scheme.
Neil Alderson said that Centrical is targeting £4m sales in its first full year of trading and currently employs around 25 ex-Aldersons staff, although he said he hoped to treble that number in two years.
The company is predominantly a sheetfed litho operation at present, but according to Alderson, it also offers design, print management and project management services.
He added that in terms of kit it has taken on the large-format KBAs owned by Peter and Ron Alderson and "also a mixture of assets purchased from the old Alderson companies and some assets from companies outside of the group". Both Peter and Ron Alderson have both retired from the industry and will have no operational roles within Centrical.
According to Neil Alderson, suppliers have been very supportive of the new venture.
"I think it is clear that our intentions were always honourable. We have been given credit terms and continued good relationships with a large quantity of suppliers, there will however always be a few who are cautious. We are a new company and happy to be treated as such," he added.
Alderson Brothers Printers, Alderson Digital London, Alderson Point of Sale and Don Dawson PLC were placed in administration on 14 September. While Joint administrators John Whitfield, Benjamin Wiles and Paul Clark of Duff & Phelps have been unavailable for comment since their appointment, according to a copy of their initial creditors’ report seen by PrintWeek, operations ceased at the companies on 16 October, with the remaining 42 staff made redundant as a result.
According to documents at Companies House, Amanda Syson and Tim Delahay, formerly chief executive and chief commercial officer of APG respectively, were appointed directors of Centrical Technologies on 19 October. However, according to Neil Alderson he will become sole director "within the month" and is the majority shareholder, with the remaining shares to be held in a separate company "for the employees’ eventual benefit".
"Both Tim and Amanda were instrumental in setting up the new business, but they are now concentrating on working with the legal team over the [Aldersons Print Group] bank dispute resolution," said Alderson.
He added that while he can understand some people's immediate reaction will be to label the company a phoenix, he stressed that this wasn't the case.
"I don’t believe that anyone can be that naïve to think that if we had any desire or plan to phoenix, that we wouldn’t have done it overnight with little recourse – and certainly without the pain that we have endured over the last 3 months. We fronted the situation – and certainly not to our personal advantage," said Neil Alderson.
"The world saw it happen, they saw the banks behaviour. This is a new company which is lucky enough to have the ability to take on exceptional staff and some key pieces of equipment. This business was not even conceived of at the start of these awful few months, but it's strong and growing and we have every intention of ensuring its success."
