German manufacturer of sheetfed and web offset presses manroland has announced that it is in negotiations to acquire Swiss-based WIFAG, manufacturer of high-quality newspaper printing solutions. The deal is expected to be completed by this spring.
manroland, spun off from the German industrial giant MAN Group in 2006, is the second largest press manufacturer in the world (after Heidelberg) and the market leader in web offset presses. The company is a significant force in the newspaper press market, and with this acquisition it aims to further strengthen its position in this struggling sector.
“Our industry is marked by an ongoing and necessary consolidation. The current situation allows us to actively grasp the opportunities in the market to strengthen our business,” notes Gerd Finkbeiner, CEO of manroland in a company release.
Transcontinental, a leading newspaper printer in Canada, installed three manroland press lines at its new plant in Fremont, California to fulfill its contract to print the San Francisco Chronicle. More recently the company started up a manroland system at its Transmag newspaper printing facility in Montreal. It’s latest purchase in this sector, dedicated to fulfilling its 18-year Globe and Mail contract beginning at the end of this year, went to rival German press maker KBA.
Based in Bern, Switzerland, WIFAG’s dedicated newspaper presses have a small installation base in North America. The independently-owned Nova Scotian newspaper publisher, The Halifax Herald Ltd., installed a $26 million WIFAG press in 2003, one of only three of its kind in North America at the time. Last fall WIFAG installed a new press line in Naples, Florida, its sixth site in North America.
Under pressure from the worldwide economic collapse in 2009, last October WIFAG announced it was searching for a "strong partner". The company also indicated it would be cutting some 300 jobs by this summer. The announced sale to manroland is WIFAG’s response to worldwide newspaper industry consolidation.
