From the Boston Business Journal: Service Point USA shuts down ...

Now up on the Boston Business Journal on-line edition:

Nov 12, 2013, 1:55pm EST

Service Point USA shuts down, leaving customers and employees out in the cold

Web Editor-Galen Moore

Boston Business Journal

Service Point USA shut down operations abruptly on Friday, leaving employees with a long weekend and customers calling to find out the status of print jobs. By Tuesday, the presses were up and running again, but nobody was able to say who was running them.

The managed print services company is the U.S. subsidiary of Service Point Solutions S.A., which had come to the brink of bankruptcy in October, Reuters reported at the time. With operations in Europe and the U.S., the Spanish parent company reported a net loss of 834 thousand euros for the first half of 2013.

In 2010, Service Point USA was a 20-million-Euro annual business, according to a news release the company published at the time, announcing the hiring of Chief Operating Officer Kevin Eyers to run the U.S. subsidiary. Eyers was COO as of Friday's shutdown. He could not immediately be reached, Tuesday. (Hat tip to Reprographics 101 for posting that news release.)

An employee reached by phone said workers found out about the shutdown last Thursday. It took effect Friday morning. A spokeswoman for the state's Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development said Service Point hasn't reported any layoffs there.

Some former Service Point USA employees returned to work Tuesday – but it wasn't clear who was employing them. Service Point phone numbers on Summer Street in Boston's Financial District were answered by employees alternately identifying themselves as independent contractors and as employees of ABC Imaging, a competitor based in Washington.

Timothy Sachs, a senior vice president at ABC Imaging, said Service Point remains a separate company. "We are not taking over any operations of Service Point," he said. He declined to elaborate any further.