In the afternoon of 22nd September 2015, Dieter Manz – Chairman of the Board of Manz AG based in Reutlingen – and Uwe Leonhardt – owner and CEO of Gebr. Leonhardt GmbH & Co. KG Blema Kircheis based in Aue, signed the contracts for the takeover of Manz AG’s business segment Packaging Solutions (Majer) by Blema.

With effect from 1st October, products, technologies, customer base, supply contracts and current production are handed over to Blema. 22 employees, mainly from engineering, assembly, order processing and service, are taken over in order to successfully continue the ongoing business. Furthermore, new employees are currently being interviewed. The areas of R&D, initial sales, central purchasing, parts manufacturing and administration are going to be handled by the mother company Blema in Aue.

The owning family Leonhardt pursues the strategic medium-term objective to establish the new merger as the world’s leading supplier of high speed lines for the manufacturing of spiral-wound composite cans. Additional product fields of the former Christian Majer GmbH & Co. KG which had been taken over by Manz AG in 2007 like equipment for the production of cheese boxes and baking trays as well as machines for the manufacturing of wine and champagne capsules are to be expanded and developed further. Investments into service personnel will be undertaken to significantly improve customer satisfaction and to push the after sales business. Hence the turnover of Blema will be increased by at least seven million euros.

The teams of Manz and Blema look forward to the new challenges and a good working relationship with mutual customers and suppliers.