The purchase has been made through Koenig & Bauer Coding, which has bought All-Print Holding for an undisclosed sum.
All-Print Holding is the majority shareholder in Svenska Allen and All-Print in Linköping. Koenig & Bauer Coding said the buy would expand its coding capabilities in tertiary packaging and its market presence in Scandinavia.
Svenska Allen and All-Print supply a wide range of customer with specialist solutions for a number of industries including food, pharmaceutical, chemical engineering, and plastics, as well as the steel and wood industries.
In a statement, Magnus Folke, chief executive of All-Print Holding, said: “With more than 30 years’ of experience in marking and coding applications and our strong design and distribution departments, we will certainly contribute to and benefit from the growth path of Koenig & Bauer Coding. And so will our customers all over the world.”
All-Print’s product range spans inkjet, thermal transfer, laser printing, hot stamping, and print and apply. It has partnerships with Hitachi Industrial for inkjet coding and contactless laser marking, and with French marking and coding specialist Tiflex. The firm also makes bespoke industrial marking systems for specific customer requirements.
Koenig & Bauer’s sales in the coding arena have grown by around 50% over the past three years. The marking and coding business is included in the group’s ‘Special’ division, alongside banknote and security presses, and printing systems for metal decorating and direct printing onto glass or hollow containers. Sales at the business unit grew by 4.8% to €490.5m (£423.6m) last year.
Coding and marking is part of K&B’s ‘Growth Offensive 2023’ aimed at delivering profitable growth for the group.
K&B’s overall sales last year were just under €1.23bn and it aims to grow that headline figure to €1.5bn.
Separately, last week the K&B and Durst management teams officially signed their 50:50 joint venture agreement for the development of a single-pass inkjet press for cartons and corrugated packaging. Anti-trust clearance from the relevant authorities for the venture to get the go-ahead is expected to be in place by the end of May.
