Manroland Goss 'seizing new opportunities'

MGWS has adapted its commercial and newspaper web offset technology for packaging applications
MGWS has adapted its commercial and newspaper web offset technology for packaging applications

Web press specialist Manroland Goss Web Systems expects its performance to bounce back in 2021 after reported “a significant increase in incoming orders” for new web presses for packaging applications.

The Germany-headquartered business said that, like other press manufacturers, its 2020 financial year had been “strongly influenced" by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

It had sales of €220m (£191m) and was in the black at the EBIT level with earnings before interest and taxes of €3.2m.

Prior year comparatives were unavailable at the time of writing. 

Manroland Web Systems and Goss merged in 2018. 

The firm added to its packaging offering with the acquisition of Thallo at the end of last year. 

It said that its service business had remained stable during the pandemic, but incoming orders were below expectations. 

CEO Franz Kriechbaum was upbeat about future prospects, with Manroland Goss pointing to growth in new press orders “driven in particular by web offset packaging printing solutions”.

The firm scooped an order for its Varioman c:line press, which can print onto paper and board from 100-700microns, at a greenfield packaging site in Germany last year. 

Its most recent commercial web installation in the UK, a 32pp Lithoman IV at Warners Midlands, was commissioned just over a year ago. 

Kriechbaum said: “We are constantly on the move and are seizing many new opportunities created through rethinking our processes. And all of this equipped with benefits and added value for our customers.”

Manroland Goss Web Systems is owned by German investment firm L. Possehl and American Industrial Partners, based in New York.