More than 600 WA businesses and schools and 90 employees are likely to receive less than 10 per cent of the $50 million they are owed by education product supplier Wooldridges, which was last month placed into administration.
Administrator Matthew Donnelly, from Grant Thornton, said there had been strong interest in the sale of the iconic WA company, however, it was not expected to generate sufficient funds to pay more than 700 creditors, of which nearly all were from Western Australia.
Donnelly said all Wooldridges employees had been retrenched and were owed about $1.6 million, while schools would lose $1 million in unpaid rebates.
The company's brand FotoWorks, which takes the majority of school photos in WA, was likely to be sold, with little impact on bookings, according to a report in WA Today.
Wooldridges' shops, which closed on 27 July, are unlikely to reopen.
Wooldridges started as a family business in Perth in the 1960s and expanded interstate after its 2008 sale to Sydney-based private equity firm Fulcrum Capital Partners.
The company is presently involved in a court battle to recoup $15 million from Corporate Express, claiming it is to blame for the late deliveries to schools earlier this year.
As previously reported, Corporate Express initiated court proceedings in the NSW Supreme Court, claiming Wooldridges owes it $3.6 million in unpaid invoices.
But Wooldridges, its parent company Education Works Australia and associate companies in other states are counter-suing, claiming Corporate Express breached its contract by not meeting its supply obligations.
A spokesperson for Corporate Express told Stationery News that the company could not comment as the case was before the courts.
