Munich-based mechanical engineering group KraussMaffei is selling its Swiss subsidiary Netstal Maschinen AG to Krones AG, a a long-standing Netstal customer that manufactures machines for filling and packaging beverages and liquid foods. The transaction having already been announced on 29 January, the purchase agreement was signed on 6 February, with a price around 170 million euros.
As well as Netstal Maschinen AG, based in Näfels, Krones is acquiring Netstal Deutschland GmbH, a sales and service subsidiary based in Stuttgart, plus eleven other sales and service units in the US, South America, Europe and Asia. As part of the sale, around 530 employees will transfer from KraussMaffei to Krones. All existing Netstal jobs will be retained. Netstal will continue to manage its business independently and Netstal's CEO of many years, Renzo Davatz, will continue to manage the company.
Netstal Maschinen AG's consolidated share of the KraussMaffei Group's total sales in the 2023 financial year was just under 20 per cent.
Sale creates leeway for further investments
"The sale of Netstal is part of our long-term plan to realign KraussMaffei strategically, organisationally and on the global market. In future, we want to concentrate fully on our core business and new growth markets, strengthen the KraussMaffei core brand and focus the Group accordingly. At the same time, the sale of Netstal gives us the leeway to make further investments, for example in digitization and the development of new machines", said KraussMaffei CEO Chi Zhang.
