Sony DADC, the New South Wales-based disc and packaging print arm of Japanese multinational Sony Corporation will close site and auction off its print equipment.
The company printed CDs, Blu-Rays, DVDs and all the associated print work at the site. It has capabilities across offset, digital, and finishing, graphic design, scanning and proofing, die cutting, gluing, folding and bookbinding.
The Sony DADC Sydney closure follows the closure of the Sony site in Minnesota. US employees have quoted half of the company’s workforce as being laid off as a result, some 375 staff, citing lower retail demand for packaged media.
Music streaming ihas severely impacted CD sales. Digital sales now comprise 70 per cent of music sold, with streaming the fastest growing sector It rose 90 per cent last year. CD sales continue to plummet.
Remarkably, and this must provide some good news for printing and packaging, vinyl continues to rise, up. Forbes magazine reported that, as CD and digital sales decline in the wake of streaming services like Spotify and Pandora, record sales have risen 260 per cent since 2009. As compact disc slaes fall, vinyl supplers can’t keep up with demand.
Sony DADC had a print shop that had two B1 Heidelbergs, an eight colour perfector and a six-colour, both around ten years old, and which are both up for auction. It also had a Fuji Xerox iGen 150, bought two years ago.
Auctioning website Australian Valuations is handling the sale.
As well as the two Heidelbergs and the Fuji Xerox, there is a 2015 Polar 137N Plus Guillotine, 1993 Bobst SP102E Flat Bed Auto Platen, 2006 Heidelberg ST-350 Gatherer Stitcher, 2006 Rollem A2 Slip Stream Cutting Line, 2008 Kohmann Model Miniplace CD/DVD Tray Gluing Machine, and a 2010 Agfa Avalon PT-R8800 III CTP.
