Renz, provider of wire binding systems from desktop units to automated calendar and notebook production, is undergoing a restructuring process having filed for insolvency in Germany.
As yet the move only affects the Germany business and not Renz (UK) nor its other overseas subsidiaries.
Managing director Iain Bullock says: “From a Renz (UK) perspective for the time being nothing has changed we have goods coming in as usual from the German parent.”
Martin Hörmann, partner at Ulm legal firm Anchor, has been named the provisional insolvency administrator. He will work on restructuring the business to ensure a long term sustainable business model is achieved. The company has decided not to participate in Drupa this year.
The administration process gives Hörmann three months while costs of the business are met by the government to find a solution to its problems,
The company says that a number of factors have combined to create a funding gap for the business. It has found it difficult to source some components at the same time as energy costs and personnel costs have risen. This has coincided with a drop in sales revenues, delayed or non payment and delayed orders for large machines.
However, cash from the business has been invested outside the print industry in Organic Waste to Energy projects which have not been successful and this has instrumental in the financial problems Renz has faced.
These shareholders have provided some additional funds, but this has not been enough to avert the insolvency. Renz employs 127 across factories in Heubach, rose to Stuttgart.
The business dates back more than a century and was bought by private investment group 5-Haven Holding in 2014 after Peter Renz decided to retire from the business, but retained ownership of the land which has been rented by the business.
The company produces small manual machines which are popular in schools and offices rising to the Autobind and Mobi models that can punch and bind in line for trade finishers, online trade printers and calendar houses. Recent customers have included Brighton trade finisher Kensett which has been running a new machine since before Easter, Printed Easy and Printed.com.
During the Covid pandemic, Renz developed a range of personal protective equipment which was sold online.
Should it prove impossible to find a new structure for Renz as an organisation, the products and the ongoing revenue from the supply of wire, will be attractive to other vendors in the sector.
