News in brief: Investments, bankruptcies and strategic changes

Below are some of the major investments, bankruptcies and strategic changes over the last six months.

Stibo and Gigantprint, Denmark-Sweden:

Danish print giant Stibo has acquired Swedish wide-format printer Gigantprint. Gigantprint is based in Norrköping, Sweden and has a turn over of SEK 140 million.

“The acquisition of Gigantprint is an important strategic move. We are increasing our graphic business from being primarily an industrial printer to becoming a graphic supermarket,” says Søren Henriksen, CEO of Stibo.

Ålgård Offset and Printagon, Norway-Sweden:

Norwegian firm Ålgård Offset invested NOK 110 million in their Norwegian plant in Stavanger last year.

Last week, Ålgård announced further investment in Sweden. Ålgård’s sister company, Printagon in Sweden, have invested in a new 32s Lihomann III press. Ålgård’s ownership in Printagon increased to 91 percent as a result of the investment.

Brandfactory, Sweden:

Swedish firm Brandfactory expands their property in Farsta in Stockholm from 6,700 sq meters to 11,000 sq meters as they cluster all their Stockholm business at one location.

At the same time, the company announced new investments in a Heidelberg XL. Brandfactory has a turn over of SEK 1.1 billion and 500 employees in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

Bookwell, Finland:

Bookwell Digital filed for bankruptcy in June. The Finnish book printer invested EUR 7,4 million in new digital equipment in 2016.