Muller Martini mulls major restructure amid weak demand

The Swiss finishing manufacturer published a statement saying that revenues had “fallen massively over the past four years”.

Muller Martini said the consolidation among customers had decreased the size of the customer base, while a lack of access to finance had also held up machinery investments. The high Swiss franc has also been a barrier to investment.

According to the statement: “The aim of the reform of the company is to preserve its future role as a leader in the shrunken global graphics industry through innovative printing and print finishing products together with a high-quality customer service, and to put the company on a sustainable and future-oriented foundation.

“In addition, Muller Martini must adapt the size of the company to a scaled-back market to enable it to continue investing in future-oriented product developments.”

[Poll results: vendor consolidation]

It is looking at consolidating its two main sites in Switzerland, “which are not operating at sufficient capacity”.

“In total up to 550 jobs worldwide could be affected by the restructuring.  A decision is expected in the next few months,” said Muller Martini.

The news follows last year’s global restructure, which saw the company move from a local approach to centralise servicing and marketing from eight regions.

This led to the redundancy of well-known Australian managing director Livio Barbagallo, who was replaced by general manager Roman Beeler.

It is not the first bad news out of Switzerland this year, following the bankruptcy of pre-press manufacturer Lüscher in April.

[LinkedIn: Will we see more consolidation in the industry?]

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