A marginal Grafton company was forced into bankruptcy after a staff member stole a colleague’s office chair, causing a chain reaction of chair reshuffling that saw productivity plummet to zero.

“I just wanted a comfortable and ergonomically sound workstation,” said Maurice Finkel, the shipping clerk blamed for the liquidation of RePong, a boutique refurbisher of ping-pong racquets.

RePong managing director Jasper Zipf said the company had just won a small contract from Table Tennis NSW (Northern Rivers Conference) to handle a full season of refits and this would have kept the company afloat.

“But this disruption knocked us for six. It’s a time-critical business and we have to get our shipments out and our bills paid promptly.

“When Cheryl came back to the office and found Maurice had taken her chair, she took Raylene’s because Raylene was at lunch and then Raylene came back from lunch and went to the billing department and took Peter’s.

“Pretty soon this had spread throughout all departments of the business until it reached my office and a whole day’s production was down the creek.

“You’ve seen how quick these ping-pong people react at the table. They are lightning fast and that is reflected in their purchasing decisions. When we weren’t able to deliver on time they wiped us.”

Mr Zipf denied staff accusations that the company could have avoided the disaster by strategically re-investing profits in better office furniture, even some reasonable secondhand stuff.

“We acknowledge that the gas lift was stuffed on most of the chairs and the upholstery was the vinyl stuff that sticks to the backs of your legs when you’re hot and sweaty,” he said.

“And we are short one chair, which is why you had this chain reaction. In the end I ended up with no bloody chair and no bloody company.”

But staff members’ unwillingness to wait until the company could afford a new chair had bitten them in the bum, he said.

“Now they’ve got no jobs and I’ve got the arse out of my pants.”

He said even if the company could rebuild it could face problems recruiting skilled staff as current workers left the industry. “It’s tricky work gluing that green rubbery matting to the face of the racquet without getting your fingers stuck, and using just enough glue but not too much so it doesn’t squeeze out the sides everywhere. I’m buggered if I know how they manage it,” he said.