Times are tough for injection moulding machinery manufacturers in Italy. Sandretto, one of the country´s "flagship companies," recently applied for protection from creditors – see Plasteurope.com Web of 17.02.2006. Now the 2005 results from the other big Italian machinery group, Negri Bossi (Monzese / Italy; www.negribossi.it), add to the depressing picture. The company´s sales slumped by nearly EUR 20m, compared with 2004, to EUR 98m. It posted an EBIT loss of EUR 10.2m and a net loss of EUR 8.7m.

Negri Bossi´s owners, Sacmi Imola (Imola / Italy; www.sacmi.com), responded to the already poor figures in the first half of 2005 by immediately taking over the reins of the company acquired in 2002 – see Plasteurope.com Web of 01.12.2005 203798. The new strategy – to operate as an international premium provider for full-system solutions – should begin to bear fruit in Q2 2006, said CEO Eugene Ferragina. The healthy order book situation gives cause for "cautious optimism," he said.

According to Ferragina, Negri Bossi started the new year with orders worth EUR 20m, well above the comparative figure for last year. Apart from that, in January, the company took over the remaining 30% stake in machinery producer BM Biraghi (Monza / Italy; www.bmbiraghi.it) and now has full control over its former competitor.