QI Press Controls extends its scope and takes out a competitor with the acquisition of EAE from bankruptcy.

Oosterhout, Netherlands-based, QIPC has announced that it has acquired EAE – based in Ahrensburg, near Hamburg, Germany, with an operation in Atlanta, USA – for an undisclosed sum.

After failing to find additional investment, EAE filed for bankruptcy protection in August 2013, under which the Reinbek district court required restructuring – with the sale of its stage technology business and closure of switchboard production – but relieved it of debt. With no sale by December, the company then filed for bankruptcy, although creditors allowed unrestricted business to continue and new orders signed in Europe and in the USA.

Founder Richard Ewert had resigned from the management board of EAE Ewert Holding in 2011, moving to the supervisory board, with Werner Ringel leading the company as managing director. It is not clear whether he will continue.

The acquisition ends a long period of uncertainty, and QI says it will continue EAE’s core business at Ahrensburg and Atlanta, with “nearly all” employees staying on. Competition between the two companies intensified in 2011 when EAE moved into QI’s main area of operation with the introduction of its Loop colour control system – a trial of which started at Axel Springer’s newspaper plant in Ahrensburg two years ago – but no decision about its future has been taken. Otherwise the activities are highly complementary, with EAE supplying its control systems as original equipment for several manufacturers, and active in the crowded but busy retrofit market.

QI joint chairman Erik van Holten says the acquisition underlines his company’s commitment to the printing industry: “Innovation has always been key to our success. With the acquisition of EAE, we are able to meet the requirements of the printing industry in an even more comprehensive way.”

QI says it intends to continue EAE’s services focussed on optimising the printing process, but has not spelled out the future of Loop. “By joining together and pooling the abilities of both companies, we are getting closer to reaching our goal of simplifying the steadily growing complexity of the printing process through the use of innovative concepts”, says joint chairman Menno Jansen.

Founded in 1962 by Richard Ewert, EAE makes control and automation systems and software for newspaper printers – from prepress to mailroom – in more than 550 newspaper plants worldwide. It had also become more active in gravure with a retrofit order from Prinovis and membership of the European Rotagravure Association.

Peter Coleman

Pictured top: Druckcentrum Neu-Isenburg managing director Denis Kämper shows the EAE Loop at Frankfurter Rundschau in 2012 (GXpress)

Above: QI Press Controls joint chairmen Erik van Holten and Menno Jansen