The webchat appeared temporarily on the Prontaprint website just weeks after PrintWeek revealed that the franchise association at sister company Kall Kwik had passed a vote of no confidence in the ODC management and ownership of the high-street print chain.

In the webchat Prontaprint managing director Laird Mackay denied allegations that ODC received kickbacks from suppliers to its franchisees. We do not receive kickbacks from anyone, he said.

But Mackay appeared to admit that Prontaprint did benefit financially from the supplier deals, although he stressed that this was only to cover costs.

In a statement Mackay said: The specifics of supplier arrangements are commercially sensitive but exist to drive reduced costs for every franchisee’s business while offering our suppliers and partners the opportunity to increase market share.

Any notion of a significant levy to our suppliers is nonsensical and not a commercial reality.

Other accusations to come out of the webchat were that Prontaprint was slashing its marketing budget, making technical support staff redundant, allowing the number of business development managers to drop too far and delaying its new brand identity roll-out.

However, Mackay stressed in a statement that the company has increased like-for-like sales over the last year.