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Photobition will survive, but as a private company under new ownership, without chief executive Eddie Marchbanks and the #103m debt mountain he built up By Alex Grant
Photobition Group is dead, long live Photobition. No sooner than it finally went into receivership, its UK operations have been bought by three young directors.
The new holding company, Service Graphics, is unfettered by the #103m debt mountain that did for Photobition as a public company.
For months, chief executive Eddie Marchbanks and finance director Steven Smith (who left a month ago after yet another profit warning) had been in talks about an mbo, and had latterly been reduced to begging the Royal Bank of Scotland for more money.
That the very same bank which refused to help the old management has agreed to back Paul Green, Ben Moss and Charlie Reed instead, speaks volumes about Mr Marchbanks' fall from grace.
All of Photobition's UK sites are being acquired, apart from Print & Promo in Portsmouth and the head office in Belgravia.
The 11th hour
The buyout talks only began at the 11th hour and were concluded in the early hours of October 30. Staff were told of Service Graphics' takeover on October 31, the very same day that...