Koehler Paper Group takeover of The Katz Group
Weisenbach/Germany. As of the 1st October 2009 August Koehler AG from Oberkirch near Baden-Baden is taking over the insolvent Katz Group. The Koehler paper factory which employs approximately 1,400 staff at three production locations in Germany, and which is an international market-leader in the manufacture of ther-mal papers, will thereby complement its portfolio with production facilities in the beer mat sector. The takeover negotiations were conducted by the insolvency practitioner Ferdinand Kießner, Schultze & Braun. “High market shares in Europe, but, above all, also in the USA made the company an extremely attractive proposition for the inter-ested party”, according to Kießner.
The Katz Group, a worldwide leader in the development and production of coasters for beer glasses, suffering from a dramatic slump in turnover, would have had to file for insolvency on the 14th April 2009. Ever since 2007 sales of beer in the catering industry, and thereby the potential market for beer mats, had been slashed. The widespread consolidation of international breweries had also wreaked its negative effect on the Katz Group. The company reacted with a change in strategy: they planned to produce other cardboard products and to open up new geographical mar-kets for coasters. However, their efforts did not yield any success worth mentioning. The breakdown of restructuring negotiations between the principle partner and the loan-granting bank finally led to them filing for insolvency.
The most important sales markets for The Katz Group are the USA, Germany, Great Britain, France, Belgium and Ireland. Their market share in Europe amounts to a good two thirds and in the USA it is even higher than 90 percent. The main custom-ers of The Katz Group are breweries.
Once the insolvency practitioner Kießner had stabilised the business operations the insolvency proceedings were opened on the 1st July 2009. After that he initiated takeover negotiations with several interested parties. “The concept proposed by Koehler offered the best terms for all of those involved and, above all, the most se-cure prospects for the future” explains Kießner, describing the agreement concluded with the Koehler Paper Group. Affiliate companies of the Koehler Paper Group in-clude Papierfabrik August Koehler AG, Koehler Kehl GmbH and Koehler Greiz GmbH & Co. KG. The group of companies employs 1,400 staff and had a turnover of 600,704,000 euros in 2008.
All sections of the companies making up The Katz Group, in which a total of 240 staff members are employed, were taken over by Koehler. Belonging to The Katz Group are Katz International Coasters GmbH with registered offices in Weisenbach near Baden-Baden, Kurprinz GmbH with registered offices in Großschirma near Chemnitz as well as Anthemius Vermögensverwaltung GmbH in Weisenbach which functions as an equity holding company which has shares in both of the other companies as well as in two affiliate companies in the USA. Around 100 staff are employed in the USA to produce coasters for the North American market, made of cardboard which is manufactured in Weisenbach.
It has already been decided that Koehler will not continue to run Kurprinz GmbH in Großschirma. Hence all business activities at Kurprinz GmbH will be wound up as of the end of this year. A transfer company has been set up for six months for the placement of new employment contracts for the 85 members of staff affected by this.
Some Historical Notes on The Katz Group:
The origins of The Katz Group go right back as far as 1716, the year in which Johann Georg Katz set up a saw mill in Weisenbach near Baden-Baden and ended up pro-ducing telegraph poles and railway sleepers. In 1903 the very first beer mat was pro-duced and from that moment on the production of beer mats became the core busi-ness of the company. As early as 1930 the first beer mat printing machine was capa-ble of producing 30,000 beer mats per day and by 1969 the company had increased its production to a million beer mat units per day – achieved by means of a combined printing and punch press. Since then The Katz Group has continued to pursue a con-stant policy of investment and innovation to stay at the cutting edge of coaster tech-nology. They eventually reached the point where they were producing and selling more than 2,000,000,000 beer mats per year.
For further
information please contact our spokesperson:
Mail: Presse@schubra.de,
Phone: +49 (0) 7841/708-0
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Schultze & Braun Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft für Insolvenzverwaltung mbH http://www.schubra.de, Email: mail@schubra.de |