manroland GB deal announced

manroland sheetfed GmbH has acquired the sheetfed business and assets of manroland Great Britain Ltd, which went into administration on December 5, 2011, following the insolvency of its German parent, manroland AG. UK administrators were called in due to liabilities in the final salary pension scheme no longer being covered by the parent company.

manroland Great Britain Ltd had been trading since 1999 and was established when manroland Germany acquired PPS, its former UK distributor.

Over forty other subsidiaries around the world were part of a deal to acquire the sheetfed business of manroland AG, including over a million square feet of production facilities in Germany, by British industrialist Tony Langley last month. The UK business was not included in the Langley deal.

A new company, manroland sheetfed (UK) Ltd has been established and has begun trading from the same premises in Mitcham, south west London with 37 employees. Adam Robotham, who joined manroland in 1998 as commercial sales manager and was promoted to sheetfed sales director last year, has been appointed as managing director.

A HQ spokesman for manroland sheetfed GmbH in Germany said: ‘We are delighted to have been able to bring the uncertainty over our UK operations to an end and we thank our many valued UK customers for their patience while the situation was being resolved.’

It is understood that a sale of the web assets of manroland Great Britain is at an advanced stage of negotiation with another party and that sale will include employees relating to the UK web activities.

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