Century-Old Printing Press Giants That Crumbled in the Past Decade – The Biggest Surprise Is Yet

In March 2026, Manroland Sheetfed Systems GmbH – a titan in the global printing equipment industry – officially filed for insolvency protection. Just three months later, on June 1, 2026, this German institution with over 150 years of history permanently closed its production headquarters in Offenbach, while its global service and spare parts operations were fully taken over by Heidelberg. The collapse of Manroland marked the end of an era dominated by traditional heavy-duty new press manufacturing.anda Digital Printing

However, this was not an isolated case. Over the past decade, battered by the wave of digitalization, the growing demand for short-run and multi-variety packaging production, and drastic fluctuations in global supply chains, many century-old giants in the packaging and printing machinery industry have faced unprecedented existential challenges. Some have faded completely into history, while others have managed to survive through painful restructuring.

In the publishing and traditional gravure printing sectors, the industry shake-up has been particularly ruthless. In October 2020, Cerutti Group – the Italian leader in publishing and packaging gravure presses – filed for bankruptcy. Founded in 1921, Cerutti was the world's only manufacturer of publishing gravure presses and held absolute dominance in the long-run printing market.

Century-old companies in the traditional offset printing and post-press finishing equipment sectors have also been caught in the crossfire of supply chain crises and market transformation. Founded in 1906, Germany's Polar was synonymous with high-precision cutting systems and paper cutters worldwide, once holding a dominant global market share. However, due to extreme supply chain bottlenecks in recent years that led to massive order backlogs and surging energy and raw material costs, the company fell into a severe liquidity crisis in the second half of 2022 and was forced to file for insolvency protection. Although it underwent a brief restructuring through a name change and external capital injection, the continued deterioration of the broader industrial environment ultimately led Heidelberg to complete a full acquisition of Polar's systems and brand in July 2026. The century-old plant in Hofheim, Germany, was gradually closed, and its production capacity was fully integrated into Heidelberg's manufacturing network.

In the post-press sector, German binding and punching pioneer Lenz (founded in 1908) and folding system pioneer MB Bäuerle (founded in 1863) both faced severe overcapacity and liquidity crises around 2023, driven largely by the global decline of office digitization, paper billing, and traditional mail volumes. Both companies ultimately entered insolvency restructuring – one was taken over by external capital, the other spun off its traditional business to pivot toward non-standard machinery. Their histories as independent family-owned enterprises came to an end.

Facing the Darwinian test of the times, some companies managed to survive through bold self-reinvention. The most representative example is Germany's Kolbus. Founded in 1775 – a 250-year-old "living fossil" of industry – the company made a stunning decision in 2018 to sell its entire traditional long-run bookbinding business to Müller Martini, and pivot resolutely toward high-end luxury packaging equipment such as corrugated box and premium gift box machinery.

However, weighed down by a massive historical pension burden and the initial pains of market transition, Kolbus still found itself on the brink of insolvency self-administration in July 2024. Fortunately, with a clear digital packaging strategy, it successfully attracted a Munich-based industrial holding group on January 1, 2025, which fully recapitalized the company into a new Kolbus Group. By closing redundant facilities and reducing its workforce by about one-third, Kolbus shed its historical burdens and survived – equipped with a full suite of digital packaging technologies.

Asian giants have also been undergoing similar consolidation. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Printing & Paper Machinery – whose parent company was founded in 1884 – saw its offset press business merge with Ryobi years ago after years of losses. Its once-celebrated corrugated packaging machinery division was fully integrated into Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machinery Systems in 2020, ceasing to operate as an independent entity. Its production focus has since shifted entirely toward high-automation solutions and supporting narrow-web digital equipment.

Looking back at the rise and fall of these century-old printing machinery giants over the past decade – companies that survived two world wars and witnessed the Industrial Revolution – a clear industry rule emerges: in today's market environment, a company's biggest enemy is often not the lack of exquisite manufacturing craftsmanship, but the life-or-death race between its historical burdens and the pace of market evolution.

Most of the companies that ultimately collapsed or were forced to sell off their assets were those that clung to traditional heavy commercial offset and long-run gravure markets, which had already shrunk significantly.

On the other hand, companies like Kolbus, which managed to survive and reinvent themselves through restructuring, all went through an extremely painful process of self-transformation – decisively shedding their declining traditional bookbinding and commercial printing divisions, and betting everything on new growth tracks such as corrugated packaging, digital short-run packaging, and intelligent logistics – areas still offering high growth potential and aligned with green and sustainable development trends.

This cross-century industry shake-up also serves as a wake-up call for Chinese domestic packaging and printing equipment manufacturers to accelerate their own transformation.