Riccobono, the French group founded in 1900, makes its biggest foreign acquisition with the takeover of TSB, Germany's leading independent gravure printer.
Based in MoÌnchengladbach, near DuÌsseldorf, TSB, a family-owned group for seven generations, generates sales of ?70 million and employs 300 people in its five companies (Tiefdruck Schwann-Bagel, H+B Finishing, Basico Finishing, ISI Storage, Garant Engineering & Purchasing and TSB Retail).
TSB, a major player in the German rotogravure market
The German market accounts for over 80% of TSB's customers, including major names in mail-order (Otto Group), mass retail (Lidl, Norma, Lutz, A.S. Watson, Carrefour) and publishing and magazines (Prisma, Funke, Weltbild, Bindinc, Telegraph Media Group).
The Riccobono Group, which previously had 12 printing plants, has acquired a 42,000 m 2 Equipped with six wide-web rotogravure presses, two Ferrag inserting lines, three MuÌller Martini inserting lines and a 16,000-pallet automatic storage system.
Adapting to the changing German printing market
With this acquisition, two of the six presses will be shut down in order to adapt production capacity to the future development of the German market, says the group headed by Guillaume Riccobono, the fifth generation of the founder. This will be accompanied by the loss of 78 jobs.
"This takeover represents the Riccobono Group's most significant expansion abroad, and is perfectly in line with our external growth strategy, says Guillaume Riccobono.
It allows us to position ourselves on the German market, which is the most important for large-volume euro printing, while sizing our production facilities below the expected workload in order to anticipate future market growth." It also opens up prospects for other professions and industrial sectors.
The Riccobono Group, Europe's leading gravure printer
The Riccobono Group becomes Europe's leading gravure printer, ahead of Germany's Burda Druck, which has three printing sites, Poland's Bauer, which operates two printing plants, and Germany's Bertelsmann-Prinovis to close its last helio plant in January 2024 .
Following this acquisition, the Riccobono Group's historic daily newspaper printing business now accounts for just 30% of its activities (compared with 35% up to now). Magazine, catalog and flyer printing will increase to 40%, distribution and delivery to 20%, and mailing and finishing to 10% of the 310 million in sales.
