SANDRETTO
Machinery manufacturer under bankruptcy threat again / US investor has scant success
Sandretto Industrie (Collegno / Italy; www.sandretto.it) has been put into "Ammistrazione Straordinaria", a special Italian creditor protection scheme known colloquially as "Legge Prodi". The move on 7 February by US-based Taylor´s Industrial Services (www.taylorsind.com), Sandretto´s owner since 2005, takes the injection moulding machinery manufacturer full circle back to 1993, when it was put into administration the first time.
Following lengthy negotiations with creditor banks and with "a little help" from the Italian ministry of industry, Sandretto was sold in 1997 to polyurethanes technology group Cannon (Trezzano / Italy; www.thecannongroup.com). However, Cannon´s strategy of creating synergies between the various technologies in plastics processing was unsuccessful, and it passed Sandretto on to the US investor. Taylor´s had previously made a name for itself in the industry with the acquisition of HPM, a manufacturer of high-tonnage machines.
The US turnaround specialists also may have bit off more than they could chew with the Italian takeover. That Taylor´s may have anticipated difficulty is illustrated by the fact that when it acquired Sandretto all of the international service companies, agencies and subsidiaries were carved out and placed directly under the US holding.
This means that neither the European subsidiaries such as Windsor Kunststofftechnologie (Hanau / Germany; www.windsor-gmbh.de) and Sandretto UK (Rugby; www.sandretto.co.uk) nor overseas service and production companies such as Sandretto USA or Sandretto do Brasil will be affected by the situation in Italy. In contrast, to other countries, the Sandretto brand name has so far been unable to gain acceptance in Germany, despite a campaign launched in 2001.
Following lengthy negotiations with creditor banks and with "a little help" from the Italian ministry of industry, Sandretto was sold in 1997 to polyurethanes technology group Cannon (Trezzano / Italy; www.thecannongroup.com). However, Cannon´s strategy of creating synergies between the various technologies in plastics processing was unsuccessful, and it passed Sandretto on to the US investor. Taylor´s had previously made a name for itself in the industry with the acquisition of HPM, a manufacturer of high-tonnage machines.
The US turnaround specialists also may have bit off more than they could chew with the Italian takeover. That Taylor´s may have anticipated difficulty is illustrated by the fact that when it acquired Sandretto all of the international service companies, agencies and subsidiaries were carved out and placed directly under the US holding.
This means that neither the European subsidiaries such as Windsor Kunststofftechnologie (Hanau / Germany; www.windsor-gmbh.de) and Sandretto UK (Rugby; www.sandretto.co.uk) nor overseas service and production companies such as Sandretto USA or Sandretto do Brasil will be affected by the situation in Italy. In contrast, to other countries, the Sandretto brand name has so far been unable to gain acceptance in Germany, despite a campaign launched in 2001.
01.03.2006 Plasteurope.com 701 [204674]
Published on 01.03.2006