IFRA

WIFAG has made no secret since this past fall that it was seeking a strong partner after announcing a significant job reduction plan. It looks like the Swiss press manufacturer has found it in the form of manroland. Gerd Finkbeiner, CEO of manroland AG, confirmed Friday in a company press release that the press manufacturer is indeed negotiating the purchase of WIFAG AG.

The corresponding letter of intent was signed, and negotiations should be finalised in the spring, according to the press release.

“Our industry is marked by an ongoing and necessary consolidation,” Finkbeiner said in the press release. “The current situation allows us to actively grasp the opportunities in the market to strengthen our business.”

WAN-IFRA Magazine was unable to reach Finkbeiner on Friday afternoon for comment.

This past fall WIFAG announced that 300 jobs would need to be made redundant by July 2010, after having already made 90 layoffs in May of 2009.

“WIFAG announced their financial problems already last year after IFRA Expo,” said Manfred Werfel, executive director of Newspaper Production, WAN-IFRA. “And WIFAG was looking for a strong partner to secure the future. Since October 2009 there was much speculation who would become this partner. … Concerns were that the newspaper press supplier would be taken over by an investor from outside the industry which would not be interested in the technology and the newspaper market. Now it becomes obvious that this will probably not be the case.”

Clearly, with WIFAG on board, manroland would add a company renowned for its technological quality and service to its already well-established product and service portfolio. “If manroland as one of the leading newspaper press manufacturers takes over WIFAG, customers can expect that the sophisticated technology and the values of the Swiss company will not be lost but preserved in a new branch of a strong partner company that is experienced in the same market,” Werfel said.

Among its signature products, WIFAG offers 4/2, 6/2 and 4/1 printing presses, notably its evolution and OF series of presses.