Printmountain has suspended its service while it attempts to secure second-round funding and has revealed that chairman Roy Hill stepped down earlier this year.


Spokesman for the online print portal Tom Kahrl said the process of raising more cash was taking longer than anticipated. And he added that Printmountain was now re-evaluating its service and considering its options for the future.


Kahrl admitted that establishing a market for the online private auction service, launched at Drupa last May, had proved to be more difficult than we had anticipated.


Weve learned a great deal from our customers and were in the process of digesting that and deploying new solutions around it, Kahrl added.


Quite a lot of staff have already left the Wimbledon-based firm, but Kahrl was unable to comment on exact numbers or on the future of the management.


But calling in a replacement management team was one of the firms options for moving forward, said Kahrl.


Rumours had been cir-culating of a tie-up with httprint europe. The other option is a merger with another portal. But httprints director of marketing Tim Smith said it was no longer in discussions with Printmountain.


We have been in discussions with them at various points as we have been with many others, Smith added.


A spokeswoman for Hill confirmed he stood down earlier this year due to his commitments as BPIF chief executive. He delayed announcing the news, she said, as he did not want to jeopardise Printmountains chances of securing funds.


Story by Lauretta Roberts