British engineering firm takes on manroland sheetfed division

British engineering group Langley Holdings has been named as the company taking over the sheetfed printing equipment division of insolvent German press manufacturer manroland.

The news follows the announcement that Possehl Group had purchased manroland’s webfed printing systems site at Augsburg. Within this announcement, it was said that the Plauen assembly facility was to be outsourced as a new company and the Offenbach sheetfed printing systems site would be restructured through a management buy-out in cooperation with an investor.

Langley Holdings has now emerged as the investor in manroland’s sheetfed printing equipment division and production facilities in Offenbach, as well as the international marketing organization in more than 40 countries.

Langley Holdings already operates two successful technology divisions in Germany in the field of capital equipment: the Piller Group in Osterode, Hanover and the Claudius Peters Group in Buxtehude, Hamburg. In 2011, Langley Holdings achieved revenues of approximately 500 million euros, with a profit before tax of some 76 million euros.

Around 840 employees are to be retained from the 1,700-plus currently employed at the Offenbach location, Langley Holdings said.

Werner Schneider, manroland’s insolvency administrator, said: ‘I am very pleased with the solution which will provide a long-term perspective to the Offenbach location and the sheet-fed printing business. Tony Langley, sole shareholder of the Langley Group, is well known as a long-term investor who acts strategically. We are convinced that a lasting perspective has been found for manroland’s sheetfed printing business.’

Tony Langley, pictured, said: ‘We foresee very good economic prospects for manroland sheet-fed following the recent restructuring. This is a world-class business with an excellent reputation and its production and research and development facilities are superb; everything one expects of the very best of German engineering.’

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