The family-owned German manufacturer said that delivery delays and bottlenecks for components such as controls had hit production, resulting in delays to orders and the firm being unable to ship some of its products.
This had resulted in “a slump in sales and threatened solvency”.
Polar announced yesterday (29 August) that it would restructure under a protective court order.
Around 80% of sales are exported, and the firm has a long-standing partnership with Heidelberg.
The firm’s 380 employees remain in post and the business will continue to meet its obligations.
As well as guillotines for the printing and packaging industries, Polar is also the dominant supplier of machines for packaging frozen pizzas.
The Polar Group companies operate from a 50,000sqm facility in Hofheim, near Frankfurt.
Polar was founded in 1906 as the Adolf Mohr machine factory and grew from a regional supplier to the largest global supplier of high-speed cutters. The firm celebrated its 115th anniversary last year.
Last year the firm said it had recovered from the worst impacts of the pandemic and had achieved "round figures".
The reorganisation will be overseen by restructuring expert Dr Robert Schiebe from law firm Schiebe & Collegen.
