manroland Inc.

The executive tapped to lead manroland web systems GmbH’s North American operations said the unit remains committed to the newspaper market and that the press vendor’s new organizational structure will mean a more focused and integrated approach to how it serves its customers.

Roland Ortbach, a 28-year manroland veteran who most recently served as the company’s vice president of commercial web press sales and technical support, takes over the CEO spot. “We are now focused on one market which is the web offset market, and we have no other commitment than to our newspaper and commercial customers.”

Tony Langley, the self-described industrialist whose Langley Holdings Plc. took over the sheetfed unit of Germany’s insolvent manroland AG, plans to return the printing-press maker to profit this year. Langley doesn’t see the need for any more restructuring and has no plans to fire any of the 1,000 workers remaining at the factory in Offenbach near Frankfurt, he said today at a press conference.

Langley, who pilots his own plane to Germany and back home to England every week, sees long-term “conservative” growth for the printing-press industry. “In my lifetime and my kids lifetime, there will still be print media.”

Commercial printer equipment installations and other news from Printing Impressions’ March 2012 edition, featuring Mercersburg Printing and Franklin Imaging.

The breakup of manroland AG is officially under way. L. Possehl & Co. (Possehl Group) has agreed to buy the insolvent press manufacturer's web press unit here, while Langley Holdings will take control of the sheetfed offset division in Offenbach, Germany.

L. Possehl & Co. has agreed to buy manroland AG’s web press unit in Augsburg (Germany) while investors are sought for the offset unit in Offenbach and assembly operations in Plauen, insolvency administrator Werner Schneider said. The sites in Offenbach and Plauen will initially be taken over by management and Schneider, the administrator said. About 2,500 jobs will be saved from 4,700 in Germany.

“It is a common goal to pass the company on to investors that are interested in a long-term and independent continuation of the company,” Schneider said. “In effect, the second round is now starting for Offenbach.”

L. Possehl & Co. said it submitted a bid for manroland AG’s web-press unit in Augsburg, Germany, and is in negotiations with the printing-press maker’s insolvency administrator, Werner Schneider. Possehl would take over a majority of workers in Augsburg as well as support a factory in Plauen with long-term contracts, the Luebeck, Germany-based manufacturing group said today in a statement.

Possehl has secured credit from a group of banks led by Deutsche Bank AG for a “mid-two-digit million” amount, Possehl said.

The bid from Possehl isn’t the only offer for the unit, said two people with knowledge of the situation,

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After negotiations with a potential investor failed to reach fruition, web and sheetfed offset press manufacturer manroland AG has filed for bankruptcy protection. Its insolvency proceedings here represents Germany's largest corporate filing in two years.

Germany, which invented the printing industry more than 500 years ago and dominates the market to this day, has lost its talent for making money from the presses. In the weeks before manroland’s insolvency filing, the company negotiated with Switzerland’s Capvis Equity Partners AG, before talks broke down amid “differing ideas” about the company’s future, Capvis Partner Daniel Flaig said yesterday.

“All solutions failed because of a lack of financial support,” deputy chairman of the supervisory board Juergen Kerner said.

manroland’s collapse highlights the threat to manufacturers as banks curtail financing of machinery that sells mainly to small- and mid-sized customers.

German printing machinery maker Manroland may be on its way to getting a new owner soon, two people familiar with the plans said on Wednesday. The sources told Reuters an investor from Europe who is in the field of machine engineering sector wants to acquire Manroland.

“There are talks with Allianz Capital Partners and manroland regarding a long-term solution,” said a spokesman for truckmaker MAN, which holds 23 percent of manroland, referring to the shareholder structure.

One of the sources told Reuters the investor needed some help from the current shareholders, either in the form of loans or for the latter to