Print veteran Michael Rabbitt has followed his wife’s advice and called in a liquidator to wind up his Brisbane print business Rabs Print & Design after being diagnosed with a potentially fatal heart condition caused by “a great deal of stress” following a downturn in business. It's the second industry liquidation announced this week.
by Graham Osborne
“I have some kind of vasculitis where if you’re under too much stress your veins and arteries begin to spasm around your heart and it’s like having a heart attack,” Rabbitt told Wide Format Online. “If it’s left untreated it can actually cause a heart attack so the doctor said I needed to decrease my stress.”
Rabbitt is the founder and director of Rabs Print and Design - based at Bracken Ridge, a northern suburb of Brisbane - a well-established commercial print business that provided digital, offset and wide format printing across Brisbane and South East Queensland.
“I’ve been under a great deal of stress for some time with the downturn in the industry and it means I’ve not been able to attack the market like I'd normally do if I was in a healthy state of mind,” he said.
“It was my wife Teresa who basically pulled the pin after my diagnosis. She said, ‘That’s it, you’re closing the company. I don’t want a dead man. I don’t want any of the kids walking in and finding you on the floor.’
Michael and Teresa have three daughters and three stepdaughters as well as a grandson.
“So I’m going through a process of voluntary liquidation and I’ve just been filling out the forms as we speak so I can get them in,” said Rabbitt. Liquidator Peter Lucas was appointed after a meeting on Friday.
Rabbitt says his company, which ran a Fuji Xerox Versant 180 press and outsourced its offset and wide format work, faced increasing problems over the past year.
“I’ve been in the industry for 30 years and when I started out my actual trade was a scanner operator. So I’ve been in it for a long, long time but business has been stressful in the last 12 months. There are increasing numbers of things like these cut rate specials where people don’t care about the quality of work they get. It used to be that if the work wasn’t good enough people would throw it back in your face and say do it again, whereas these days people are quite happy to accept sh*t.
“The print management system introduced by the Anna Bligh government in Queensland has also caused massive problems. It’s allowed the fly-by-nighters to come in and undercut people already doing a good job. You get what you paid for. I’ve heard so many horror stories from government departments; colours weren’t right, paper that was supposed to be used wasn’t used. They still use the same print management system and it still causes a lot of problems. Everyone’s trying to undercut everyone else and they’re slitting their own throats."
Rabbitt was determined to close his business without any creditors but still has to work out a deal with Fuji Xerox and Neopost over his leased equipment.
“There’s no way I was going to go out like a lot of companies do, owing suppliers and creditors. I was just not going to do that. Every bill is paid except for those two. Any subcontracting work I’ve had to do as far as offset work goes, they’re all paid. We made sure before we called in the liquidators that every single bill was paid, so we don’t owe the taxation department any money, we don’t owe other printers or material suppliers any money. I was outsourcing the wide format work to a company called PDF (Professional Digital Finishers) at Geebung because they’ve always done a great job and always looked after me well. But most of the other work, I did myself. I did all my printing and binding and my ex-wife did all the artwork.
“The only money that’s outstanding is actual lease agreement payment schedules, that’s the only thing.
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| The Fuji Xerox Versant 180 press |
“I have Fuji Xerox machinery as far as the printing goes, the Versant 180 digital press, which is a really good machine. All the finishing equipment is through Neopost. I’ve got a guillotine, a bookmaker, a folding machine, scoring machine, and a cello-glazing machine that also does foiling – silver, gold, red and green for wedding invitations and special event invitations.
“I lease all of it and that’s what could make it a bit messy but hopefully the guys will come to the party. Fuji Xerox are always pretty reasonable, unless you push their buttons too hard, but I’ve stayed in contact with them over the last six months because that’s when I’ve really had the health problems and have not been able to meet their payment schedule because I haven’t been able to chase new work and follow up existing clients to keep that work growing.
“The accounts guys at Fuji Xerox have been really good because I’ve stayed in touch with them at every stage of the game. I haven’t let it get away from me and I think they’ve appreciated that. We’re even up to date with the click charges.
“The administrator will negotiate with Fuji Xerox and Neopost about the conditions for them taking it all back. I’m hoping that the goodwill between us will help in the negotiations.”
Rabbitt sounds like he’s not quite ready to embrace early retirement.
“Unfortunately, that’s the way life goes. I’m basically retired now but I’m only 49. My wife said, ‘You’re young enough to retire and enjoy it, you’ll be the house husband and I’ll be the earner, there’s no shame in that.’
“The doctor says I need to decrease my stress so I go walking every day. I’m awake at three in the morning and I go walking with my wife and my mother and my brother around 5am.
“My wife said, ‘Look, take 12 months and see how your health goes. Happy wife, happy life is what they say, so I’d rather keep her happy.”
We wish Michael all the very best for his health.
