Important milestones reached in the consolidation of the Eversfrank Group: ppi Media GmbH sold to management as part of an MBO, the Neumünster site will cease production at the end of December

Meldorf, 21.12.2018 – In December, ppi Media GmbH was successfully sold to the company’s management as part of an MBO. In addition, production at the Neumünster site (Johler GmbH & Co. KG) was shut down. This means that two milestones have been reached in the realignment of the Eversfrank Group. Furthermore, Dr. Jens Silligmüller will leave the Eversfrank Group in April 2019.

In order to counter the difficult development in its core business, high-volume offset printing, the Eversfrank Group is focusing on two key factors: the consolidation of the group of companies and the concentration and thus the strengthening of its core business. In December 2018, another important milestone in this process was reached when ppi Media GmbH was handed over to the current management. Dr. Hauke Berndt and Manuel Scheyda together with two investors from Kiel have taken over the company from the Eversfrank Group.

Since ppi Media GmbH, as the world’s leading supplier of media production systems for newspaper publishers, only indirectly corresponds to the strategic focus of the Eversfrank Group, talks on the sale of the company have been held with various interested parties for some time. “We are very pleased that we have succeeded in finding a ‘North German solution’, as a sale to foreign investors would certainly have led to serious structural changes at the Hamburg and Kiel locations,” says Frank Kohrs, CEO of the Eversfrank Group. Dr. Hauke Berndt, now managing partner of ppi Media GmbH, adds: “Our concept is to continue along the path of continuous expansion of our range of services with digital solutions. We will continue to focus on ‘software made in Northern Germany'”.

In 2011, the Eversfrank Group acquired Johler GmbH & Co. KG out of insolvency and operated a rotary printing press at the Neumünster site. As part of the consolidation process in the Eversfrank Group, the forces at the two main locations in Meldorf and Preetz will be bundled. This concentration creates profitable and marketable companies in its order of magnitude.

After more than twelve years with the company, Jens Silligmüller has decided to leave the Eversfrank Group. Jens Silligmüller has primarily driven the digitalization of the Eversfrank Group and the development of digital business models. “Jens Silligmüller is a creative lateral thinker who has contributed many impulses to the realignment of our company in recent years,” says Frank Kohrs.