Designers warn against publisher as unpaid bills threaten their businesses
Cooler: things have turned chilly for two small design firms.
Two small Scottish design firms have issued a warning to other Scottish designers after working with a magazine publisher which has left them thousands of pounds out of pocket.The two small design firms, one based in Edinburgh and the other in Glasgow, claim they have not yet been paid for design work carried out on Cooler, a 32-page magazine aimed at key decision makers within the independent drinks trade.
The Glasgow-based design firm laid-out the first two issues of Cooler and also paid for the first issue to be printed. So far the consultancy says it has not been paid for the work it carried out late last year and early in 2002, a debt of around £4,700.
Likewise, the one-man Edinburgh firm designed the third edition of Cooler and also claims it is still awaiting a payment of £2,000, throwing its future into doubt.
Cooler is published by Nigel Jordan, who previously worked at Peebles Media Group on SLTG, another drinks trade magazine.
He is also understood to have run an auto magazine, called The Trade, through his former company, Slipstream Publications, which went into liquidation in 2000.
Now Jordan operates a Linlithgow-based company called Proper Marketing Strategies Limited, which, according to Companies House, has not filed records for almost two years.
It is believed that Jordan is now looking for another small design firm to work on the fourth issue of Cooler.
The print run for the first issue was 2,000, though according to sales literature sent out to advertisers, which included Grant’s Whisky, Barr’s Irn Bru, Budweiser and Barcardi, 13,000 issues of Cooler were to be distributed to bar managers throughout Lothian, Strathclyde and the Highlands and Islands region.
Both design firms are now seeking legal advice on how to recover the debts.
Despite calls and e-mails to Mr Jordan he was unavailable to comment on the allegations made against him.