The supervisory board of Koenig & Bauer (KBA) has appointed Dr Andreas Plesske (53) as management board member responsible for restructuring operations (CRO) with effect from 1 May 2014. His initial term of office is limited to 31.10.2015, with an option to extend this by a further six months.

The restructuring expert shall push on with the extensive programme “Fit@All” approved in December 2013 to realign the world’s second-largest press manufacturer and thus also relieve the CEO of these tasks.

The qualified lawyer and economist Dr Andreas Plesske has extensive experience in management and restructuring as CEO and CRO at German and international companies of varying sizes and from different industries. This includes companies similar to KBA active in machinery and plant engineering.

“We are pleased to welcome such an experienced and distinguished expert to our company on the one hand to implement Fit@All consistently and swiftly, while also simultaneously guaranteeing an unrelenting focus on the market presence of our operating business”, the company explained.

Given the fundamentally changed market environment within the print industry, in December 2013 KBA introduced a programme to strategically realign the group and a series of measures aimed at strengthening the profitability and competitiveness of the company. The programme’s priorities are the restructuring of the core business by sustainable capacity adjustments, optimisation and concentration of the depth of added value at the different sites as well as the focus on print-related business fields with potential for growth.