PRESSIdeas talking to Mr.Henning Meier, Sales Director, Kolbus Group at PrintPack India 2025.
“Yes, we had a situation wherein we ran out of cash during the summer of 2024 and as per German laws undertook a restructuring process wherein we entered a Preliminary Self Administration Procedure to support and protect the company as it strives to restructure its organisation to enable it to continue forward in the future,” addressed Henning.
This restructure comes after a successful Drupa in 2024 and saw the Kolbus group fully reorganise the company as it approaches its 250 year anniversary. Six years ago, Kolbus sold its traditional book production division to Muller Martini to essentially concentrate on the packaging sector, both in luxury packaging and the corrugated industry.
Max Valier Holdings, a Munich-based investment group, has acquired Kolbus and committed to stabilizing and investing in its future. Additionally, the closure of the Krostitz site near Leipzig and the relocation of AutoBox production from the UK to Rahden, Germany, were the central elements of the reshuffling.
Meanwhile, the first move into corrugated came with the acquisition of Hycorr in the U.S., followed by the acquisition of AutoBox in 2019.
“Despite the fact that the global printing industry is not doing too good, we get a feeling that we will get better as the year ends and will be back on track soon,” Henning states.
Talking of the influence of the Chinese machines in the Indian market agrees that it has certainly affected their business especially due the pricing offered by them. “Though technically there isn’t a competition, yet when someone offers a machine for 1/5th the price of what we offer, it does affect our sales,” substantiates Henning. He reveals that Replika Press, one amongst the leading presses in India acquired a new case maker from Kolbus recently. “We lead in book binding technology and for companies who need only the very best, we don’t have much serious competition. But, I won’t refute the fact that we do face the heat when it comes to the Rigid Box making machines from the Chinese manufacturers,” says Henning. Adding further about the Rigid Box making machines, he elaborates, “Kolbus have certain unique features in their rigid box making machines which none in the world has and the same has been patented by them too. We are more expensive than our competitors but that’s because of the unique features that our machines carry.”
After Kolbus sold away a part of the book binding business to Muller Martini in 2018, they ventured into the corrugation arena and have machines for short runs such as the brand new toolfree boxmaker BX Motion with 60 seconds set up and inline digital print as well as long runs such as the RD 115S, a fully servo driven rotary die cutter with inline flexo print. With their unique features the robust machines allow format changes on the fly just by receiving information from a barcode. “Our target presently is to grow in the packaging market, both grey-board and corrugation, and sustain our book binding section to stabilise our business,” says Henning.
manroland Sheetfed India represents Kolbus in the region. Speaking on Kolbus, Mr.Deepak Walia, MD, Manroland Sheetfed India, comments, “We look forward to working with Kolbus for their range of incredible machines for the Indian market and retain their leadership as we represent them in this part of the world.”
Kolbus customers include the biggest digital photobook manufacturers in the western world who use it for case making for their digitally printed sheets. The robust machines are doing all type of services including digital short run hard case binding.
