On 25 November, manroland AG filed for insolvency protection as a Debtor-in-Possession in Germany. During the insolvency protection, the business operations of manroland AG continue as normal. manroland Southern Africa, as a standalone South African company, is not part of this insolvency filing, and is open for business as normal.
We are in good shape and are profitable in South Africa. We are supporting our customers and making sure that our suppliers are being paid on time, said Frank van Dijk, CEO and Chairman of manroland Southern Africa.
We have not filed for insolvency and are continuing to support our customers in both web and sheetfed with service, parts, and consumables, said van Dijk. Three years ago we started to build a top quality local service organisation to support our customers. Today we now have an organisation of over 40 people supporting customers and the R430 billion-installed base of manroland printing systems in Southern Africa.
Van Dijk said that the company has received numerous messages of encouragement and support from many of its customers. We have successfully built partnerships with our customers for the lifecycle of their printing systems and their support is encouraging.
Internationally, manroland users in several countries have already taken the initiative to organise themselves in support of manroland.
The past few days have been challenging in keeping our customers and suppliers informed of developments, admitted van Dijk. It is amazing how much speculation, rumours, and different scenarios are being discussed in the press by so-called industry experts. We have excellent machinery and talented people, so I am confident that a solution will be found. The manroland AG insolvency protection filing is a way to come to a quick solution. While nothing has been confirmed, we have heard of several expressions of interest. The German government has also taken considerable steps to help preserve the company and its people.
