Metal packaging is a growth sector, with more and more premium products being brought onto the market in lavishly designed tins
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Metal-decorating press manufacturer Bauer+Kunzi GmbH in Ditzingen near Stuttgart, Germany a successful supplier to the metal decorating industry since 1974, and since 2003 a subsidiary of Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA), is pursuing plans to acquire the full assets of Stuttgart-based LTG Print Systems Holding GmbH, including the latter’s active metal-decorating supplier LTG-Mailänder GmbH & Co KG and the associated sales subsidiaries in Italy, Great Britain and Japan. The recently signed acquisition agreement, a transaction valued in the lower two-digit million Euro range, is to be implemented by transferring the holding of the London-quoted parent company LTG Technologies PLC. The deal is currently still subject to the expected approval of the German Federal Cartel Office.The name of the new company evolving from this merger is still to be decided, but it is to have its offices in Stuttgart. Within the new entity, the product range for offset printing on metal sheets from LTG-Mailänder, which includes finishing, material logistics and air purification systems, represents an ideal complement to Bauer+Kunzi’s existing products.
The acquisition of metal decorating specialist LTG-Mailänder is the logical continuation of the strategy charted over recent years by Koenig & Bauer AG, the parent company of Bauer+Kunzi GmbH, namely to flank the core competence demonstrated in a strong market position in the high-volume sectors for sheetfed offset, commercial web offset and newspaper printing with targeted acquisitions strengthening its role in niche markets less dependent on the general economic and advertising climate. Koenig & Bauer is already one of the world’s leading suppliers for banknote and publication rotogravure printing, for example, and can in future now look forward to a similar standing in metal decorating.
The company history of LTG-Mailänder can be traced back to 1924, the year in which Dr. Albert Klein founded the “Cärrier Lufttechnische Gesellschaft m.b.H.” in Stuttgart as a manufacturer of air-conditioning systems for a variety of industries. Initial ventures into metal decorating followed already in 1932, with the first metal decorating oven for production of the world-famous blue Nivea cream tins. In 1994, LTG merged with Druckmaschinenfabrik Mailänder GmbH, a renowned supplier of printing and coating lines to metal packaging printers. In 1998, the company was renamed LTG-Mailänder GmbH.
The 50-strong staff at Bauer+Kunzi GmbH, which became a 100 per cent KBA subsidiary in 2003, returned sales of €28m and a respectable bottom-line result in 2005. For twelve years now, Bauer+Kunzi has built its Metalstar metal-decorating presses around large-format printing units from the KBA works in Radebeul near Dresden and feeders from KBA-Mödling in Austria, but needed to seek external suppliers for the necessary auxiliary equipment.
The new company will be able to offer one-stop full service from initial product design through to the printed and stacked metal sheets, including not only all the technical equipment necessary for quality metal decorating, but also corresponding air purification solutions.
With around 350 employees, it is aiming for a turnover of over €90m. The management team is to be made up of experienced experts from both Bauer+Kunzi and LTG-Mailänder, which will guarantee continuity in the existing customer relationships. At the same time, the expertise which LTG-Mailänder is able to contribute in the fields of materials handling and air purification could also bring KBA synergy benefits in the medium term from cooperation with the well-established and dynamic packaging business of the KBA sheetfed offset division in Radebeul near Dresden.
