Distie loses $150k court case, falls to liquidators

Printing consumables sub-distributor Tonnex has called in the liquidators after the Federal Court ordered it to pay $150,000 damages to rival Dynamic Supplies.

Liquidator Ferrier Hodgson has not yet received a report on the state of Tonnex, but partner John Lindholm suspects debts in the vicinity of "a couple of million dollars" to trade suppliers.

Tonnex's vendors included all the major print brands: Brother, Canon, Epson,HP, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Lexmark, OKI, Panasonic, Ricoh-Lanier, Samsung, Sharp and Fuji Xerox. It is understood that distributors to Tonnex also face massive fallouts.

"The company is not operating as it was before. There is skeleton staff to maintain the status quo – just four people manning the office," Lindholm told CRN.

The computer and printer consumables distributor ran into trouble after it lost a half-decade legal battle against Dynamic Supplies. In the latest judgment handed down Tuesday in the Federal Court, Tonnex was ordered to pay $150,000 for infringement of copyright.

Two days later, a liquidator had been appointed to wind up Tonnex, according to ASIC.

Dynamic Supplies' managing director Scott McLennan said he found it "interesting" that Tonnex should go into liquidation immediately after the court ruled in his company's favour.

"The judge handed down his findings on Tuesday and we gave them one day to sort themselves out. Then they go into liquidation."

McLennan told CRN that originally there were four issues that Dynamic Supplies took Tonnex to court for – three for breaches of the Trade Practices Act, and one for a copyright breach. Tonnex only appealed on the copyright matter.

The issue concerned a "compatibility chart" that Dynamic Supplies created with its own data, which was claimed to be similar to one that Tonnex published later.

"We didn’t want to go to court in the first instance. We knew they stole the compatibility chart. We contacted them immediately to get them to stop using it – and here we are five years later," McLennan said.

"We're happy with the outcome, but disappointed in the time that it took in the courts. We started the legal action in 2009 – it has been such a long time."

CRN contacted Tonnex but a spokesperson declined to comment other than to say it is "an unfortunate situation" and "quite a shame".

Liquidator John Lindholm said he would seek to sell off the assets of Tonnex. "We've had a couple of parties operating in this space that have indicated interest in purchasing the customer list."

While Lindholm said Dynamic Supplies wasn't one of the parties that had shown interest, McLennan told CRN that he'd make enquiries.

"I'd be interested in talking to the liquidator around buying the assets," said McLennan.

Tonnex was headquartered in Tottenham, Victoria, with warehouses also in Western Sydney and Brisbane. Dynamic Supplies originated in Brisbane in 1994, with branches now in all the mainland states.