Editor's Note - We received the following statement from manroland North America this morning: “manroland North America is currently operating in a “business as usual” status. We would like to assure the industry that manroland Inc. North America is fully operational, and we are continuing to provide the best possible service for our customers”

The major news in the past week has been German press manufacturer manroland filing for insolvency. This is the largest corporate failure in Germany for two years. The company filed for insolvency in Ausberg, Germany and the insolvency court appointed Werner Schneider, a financial auditor and tax consultant as insolvency administrator. The court appointed lawyer Dr Frank Kebekus as general representative for the restructuring. manroland’s filed its request for self-administration to complete restructuring efforts. The company was forced into filing for insolvency by a dramatic downturn in incoming orders since July this year. manroland stated that it would act to rescue key units within the framework of its restructuring effort. So far this ongoing restructuring has seen a reduction in staffing from 8,656 in March 2009 to a current level of 6,500.

There have been suggestions that an investor from outside of the industry has been negotiating to acquire a stake in the company.