Thank you for the music: Heidelberg bows out of 'non-core' Idab Wamac

Heidelberg has shed the one wholly-owned newspaper asset it retained when it sold the former Harris Web business to Goss International, passing mailroom specialist Idab Wamac to Schur on December 10. The deal puts Wamac back under Scandinavian control … something it enjoyed in the days when it was owned by pop group Abba in the 1970s. Through its subsidiaries Schur Packaging Systems (in Horsens, Denmark) and Schur Palletiser (in Eksjö, Sweden), Schur provides advanced mailroom, distribution and palletiser solutions to the newspaper and commercial printing industry worldwide. The acquisition will strengthen its position in the newspaper mailroom segment and production units will combine to include engineering, project management and management in Eksjö and an aftersales, service, sales and engineering unit in Horsens. In the USA, Schur Packaging Systems in Chicago handles sales for North and South America. Australian agent for Schur is Anders Agren’s Thortec, based in Sydney. Hans Schur, owner and chief executive of Schur International says the mailroom business will be consolidated in Eksjö: “We are very excited about this opportunity to take the best from both companies and create an entity which will be known worldwide for providing productive, highly automated, high-speed mailroom solutions supported by our palletising units". Heidelberg chief executive Bernhard Schreier says Idab Wamac was no longer considered a core business, “so we decided to find a new home for it. “This is a further step in focussing on sheetfed offset solutions and implementing our improvement programme. We are very pleased that Schur, which has an excellent reputation and longstanding commitment within the mailroom business, will be the new owner.”