Printing firm Ovato goes into administration

Ovato, which calls itself New Zealand’s largest print and print-distribution company, has gone into voluntary administration.

Its Australian parent company announced to the ASX on Thursday that ongoing volatile market conditions, the increased cost of raw materials and legacy cost issues had continued to negatively impact the business and led to the decision to appoint administrators.

Directors appointed Chris Hill, Ross Blakeley, and Ben Campbell, of FTI Consulting, to be voluntary administrators to the company, effective immediately.

The administrators intended to trade the company on a business-asusual basis while they assessed the financial position and ongoing viability of the business.

They would provide an update at a creditors meeting expected in early August.

It is not known how this will affect the New Zealand side of the business, and Ovato has been approached for comment.

It comes after Ovato has made closures to its printing plants in New Zealand.

Nearly 150 workers were made redundant after Ovato closed its heatset printing operation at its printing plant in the Auckland suburb of Wiri at the end of April.

Ovato managing director Paul Gardiner told Stuff in April that the company had lost a number of clients because supply-chain issues meant it did not have the paper they needed.

He said by May there would be about 50 New Zealand staff members remaining.

Losses would be from across the company, including at the executive level.

The Wiri closure came just months after the company closed its Christchurch branch in September 2021.

Ovato was formerly PMP and then merged with Australian-based IPMG in 2017.