Manroland Sheetfed’s factory in Offenbach has closed its doors and ceased production of any new presses, but without any announcements about the future of the sales and service organisations around the world, nor of a potential buyer for the brand, the technology and other assets of the business. The optimists are anticipating announcements this week, but so far those running the business and its administration have been tight lipped about progress.
There are 38 sales organisations around the world engaged in selling, service and support for the Manroland Sheetfed products. They continue to operate as if nothing has happened at the factory which is reckoned to be the loss making drain on the organisation and is the side of the business placed in Germany’s equivalent to Chapter 11 three months ago.
At the time there was optimism that the picture would quickly become clear. Restructuring expert Arndt Geiwitz said at the time: “I see Manroland Sheetfed has a viable core business. However, we will have to implement drastic and far reaching measures. Then the restructuring has a chance of success. This is also confirmed by an expert opinion.”
Those drastic measures included the ending of employment for people involved in production and development of new presses, some 700 in all, from the start of last week. There have been no redundancies among the service and support operations, not even from sales executives who now have nothing to sell.
Throughout the process to date, there has been no communication about the future of the ongoing business, though speculation is mounting that multiple sales negotiations are taking place. Many think that the rights to the Roland 900 will either be sold to Heidelberg as it had agreed a deal to sell this machine as the Cartonmaster CX145 and needs this press to fill out its press range. The rights to the remaining machines, including the latest version of the Roland 700 would not be attractive to Heidelberg nor to other German press manufacturers. But a Chinese company might find it would make sense to acquire the rights to a press, its brand and global support network at what amounts to a knockdown price.
However in a post on LinkedIn, Czech dealer PrintServices says: “The interest of potential acquirers is focused exclusively on the globally positioned service and spare parts business, including the market and service organisation. This business is based on a worldwide installed base of machines and generates continuous demand for service and wear parts over many years. In addition, Manroland Sheetfed has an established international market and service organisation in numerous countries, which represents immediate value for potential acquirers.”
It is not unusual for German companies to remain in the administration process for longer than initially anticipated. Across a recent spate of administration for print related companies, Renz was under administration for more than a year, Polar is still undergoing restructuring while two Baumann operations have recently been sold by their respective administrators.
