KBA has bought the Bad Oeynhausen-based business, subject to “minor formal conditions”, from German private equity firm Perusa. Kammann’s two managing directors will retain 15% of the business. The deal is expected to be completed within two weeks. This latest deal follows KBA’s purchase of Italian flexo press manufacturer Flexotecnica in February and ties in with KBA chief executive Claus Bolza-Schünemann’s comments last month that KBA would look to make targeted acquisitions in “promising print segments”. “We want to expand our position in the growing and widespread packaging market and Kammann addresses a small but profitable niche in this printing segment,” said KBA director of marketing and corporate communications, Klaus Schmidt. Kammann manufactures offset and screen presses for directly decorating glass bottles, metal and plastic containers, CDs and DVDs, and flexible narrow-web materials. Its modular machines can also be configured with foiling, digital printing and embossing units. According to KBA, the company is the world leader in glass container printing for the cosmetics and drinks industries. Kammann, founded in 1955, employs 175 staff and generates sales of €30m (£26m) and, since being restructured by Perusa, has been profitable. KBA said premium glass packaging is a growing market across the globe and, due to the challenging nature of manufacturing presses to print directly onto containers, it’s a market that is relatively safe from oversupply. The company currently focuses on assembly and outsources the majority of its parts manufacturing. According to Schmidt, KBA has no plans to start manufacturing Kammann presses in its own facilities. “The design and assembly of Kammann machines will stay at the Kammann site in Bad Oeynhausen. Manufacturing of parts, but not engineering, assembly and service, is mostly outsourced today and this will be the case in the future since it’s less risky,” he said. “Some parts could also be manufactured in other KBA facilities but only if these facilities can compete price-wise with external sources. This is the rule in today’s business environment.”...

KBA has bought the Bad Oeynhausen-based business, subject to “minor formal conditions”, from German private equity firm Perusa. Kammann’s two managing directors will retain 15% of the business. The deal is expected to be completed within two weeks. This latest deal follows KBA’s purchase of Italian flexo press manufacturer Flexotecnica in February and ties in with KBA chief executive Claus Bolza-Schünemann’s comments last month that KBA would look to make targeted acquisitions in “promising print segments”. “We want to expand our position in the growing and widespread packaging market and Kammann addresses a small but profitable niche in this printing segment,” said KBA director of marketing and corporate communications, Klaus Schmidt. Kammann manufactures offset and screen presses for directly decorating glass bottles, metal and plastic containers, CDs and DVDs, and flexible narrow-web materials. Its modular machines can also be configured with foiling, digital printing and embossing units. According to KBA, the company is the world leader in glass container printing for the cosmetics and drinks industries. Kammann, founded in 1955, employs 175 staff and generates sales of €30m (£26m) and, since being restructured by Perusa, has been profitable. KBA said premium glass packaging is a growing market across the globe and, due to the challenging nature of manufacturing presses to print directly onto containers, it’s a market that is relatively safe from oversupply. The company currently focuses on assembly and outsources the majority of its parts manufacturing. According to Schmidt, KBA has no plans to start manufacturing Kammann presses in its own facilities. “The design and assembly of Kammann machines will stay at the Kammann site in Bad Oeynhausen. Manufacturing of parts, but not engineering, assembly and service, is mostly outsourced today and this will be the case in the future since it’s less risky,” he said. “Some parts could also be manufactured in other KBA facilities but only if these facilities can compete price-wise with external sources. This is the rule in today’s business environment.”...

Adrian Allen and Lindsey Cooper of Baker Tilly Restructuring and Recovery were appointed to the Bradford-based business yesterday (24 July). Following their appointment, AMS’s workforce was made redundant, although a handful of staff are understood to still be on site assisting the administrators. PrintWeek understands that the loss of a major client, thought to be Z-Card, was one of the prime factors in the collapse of the business. As a result of AMS and Z-Card deciding not to renew their partnership at the end of 2012, AMS launched its own product, Alpha Cards, and invested a “six-figure sum” in two folder lines to produce the cards. In its most recent accounts to 31 March 2012, prior to the loss of the Z-Card contract, AMS generated a pre-tax profit of £175,000 on sales of just over £6m. In a statement, Allen said: “Along with many firms in this sector, Alpha Media Solutions has experienced difficult trading conditions and in recent months has been loss making.” “The directors have taken steps to attempt to restructure the company’s cost base, but difficulties in obtaining credit lines with suppliers has meant that the business, in its current format, is no longer viable.” Part of the plan to replace the lost Z-Card business centered on AMS’s purchase of Keighley-based commercial print business Steffprint via a pre-packaged administration in late March. AMS paid £45,000 for the business and took on all staff, paying around £20,000 in salaries owed to staff by Steffprint. As a result of the purchase, AMS also took on significant TUPE liabilities in respect of Steffprint’s 27 staff. Speaking at the time, AMS managing director Ian Whitfield said: “We’ve maintained continuity for the staff and the customers, but if the clients all walked away we’d be left with a significant six-figure bill.” According to Allen the company was closed upon appointment because “regrettably, there is very little in the way of work in progress to complete and given the business is currently loss making we have taken the decision to cease trading and make the employees redundant. “The joint administrators and their staff will be assisting employees with regard to making claims to the government redundancy fund.” A Baker Tilly spokesman added that a creditors report would be circulated in around eight weeks’ time outlining the administrators’ plans on how the company could exit administration, which could include liquidation. The collapse of AMS brings to an end the final chapter of Scorpio Print Finishing, which was founded in 1987 by David Richmond. Whitfield and then sales director Daniel Graham led an MBO at the £10m-turnover business in 2003, adding Senator Print Finishers in Leicester a year later, targeting combined sales of £15m....

Adrian Allen and Lindsey Cooper of Baker Tilly Restructuring and Recovery were appointed to the Bradford-based business yesterday (24 July). Following their appointment, AMS’s workforce was made redundant, although a handful of staff are understood to still be on site assisting the administrators. PrintWeek understands that the loss of a major client, thought to be Z-Card, was one of the prime factors in the collapse of the business. As a result of AMS and Z-Card deciding not to renew their partnership at the end of 2012, AMS launched its own product, Alpha Cards, and invested a “six-figure sum” in two folder lines to produce the cards. In its most recent accounts to 31 March 2012, prior to the loss of the Z-Card contract, AMS generated a pre-tax profit of £175,000 on sales of just over £6m. In a statement, Allen said: “Along with many firms in this sector, Alpha Media Solutions has experienced difficult trading conditions and in recent months has been loss making.” “The directors have taken steps to attempt to restructure the company’s cost base, but difficulties in obtaining credit lines with suppliers has meant that the business, in its current format, is no longer viable.” Part of the plan to replace the lost Z-Card business centered on AMS’s purchase of Keighley-based commercial print business Steffprint via a pre-packaged administration in late March. AMS paid £45,000 for the business and took on all staff, paying around £20,000 in salaries owed to staff by Steffprint. As a result of the purchase, AMS also took on significant TUPE liabilities in respect of Steffprint’s 27 staff. Speaking at the time, AMS managing director Ian Whitfield said: “We’ve maintained continuity for the staff and the customers, but if the clients all walked away we’d be left with a significant six-figure bill.” According to Allen the company was closed upon appointment because “regrettably, there is very little in the way of work in progress to complete and given the business is currently loss making we have taken the decision to cease trading and make the employees redundant. “The joint administrators and their staff will be assisting employees with regard to making claims to the government redundancy fund.” A Baker Tilly spokesman added that a creditors report would be circulated in around eight weeks’ time outlining the administrators’ plans on how the company could exit administration, which could include liquidation. The collapse of AMS brings to an end the final chapter of Scorpio Print Finishing, which was founded in 1987 by David Richmond. Whitfield and then sales director Daniel Graham led an MBO at the £10m-turnover business in 2003, adding Senator Print Finishers in Leicester a year later, targeting combined sales of £15m....

The contract, worth “many tens of millions of pounds per year”, according to HH Global chief marketing officer Tony Massey, encompasses all marketing, corporate and operational print and builds on an existing relationship, with the German firm already using HH Global’s asset management services. He added: “We will work downstream of their creative agencies around the world to manage their print supply chain, which incorporates technical print advice, print sourcing and print consumption guidance.” According to Massey, Siemens’ print management was previously managed on an ad-hoc basis by a range of agencies around the world. “We are seeing a trend at the moment, with some of the bigger organisations, to take a more global view. Obviously they have more leverage if they have all services under one agreement,” he explained. Under the terms of the contract, HH Global is responsible for tracking Siemens’ carbon usage as part of a strategy by the German firm to become carbon neutral. Massey said: “We will calculate the CO2 on every single estimate and regularly advise the firm on their footprint to enable them to move to carbon neutral status.” To fulfill the contract HH Global will expand its global team by around 20 people, Massey said, with new local representatives being appointed to North and South America, the EMEA region and Asia Pacific. “Siemens covers 50 or 60 key markets so this really is probably the most global contract that we have embarked on. It presents an opportunity and a challenge because the logistics in some markets can be tricky, so it needs serious planning,” Massey said. “It certainly is an interesting time because we are exporting a concept that was founded in the UK almost 20 years ago, as of course are some of the other players in the market. “It is definitely a UK success story.”...