A day after the Swedish parent group Plastal (Kungälf / Sweden; www.plastal.com) declared itself insolvent – see Plasteurope.com of 06.03.2006 – the holding for its German operating companies, Plastal Holding GmbH (Weißenburg) followed suit. The district court in Ansbach / Germany has appointed Siegfried Beck of the law firm Dr. Beck and Partner (Nuremberg; www.ra-dr-beck.de) as provisional administrator.

Affected by the German insolvency are six operating units as well as a number of development centres with altogether 2,200 employees – more than a third of the Plastal total workforce. Alongside Weißenburg with 450 employees, German production facilities are at Büddenstedt, Essen, Pappenheim (500 employees) Renningen and Sinntal-Sterbfritz (310 employees).

The Swedish holding has stopped all deliveries into the plants of the national operating units; however, the German companies are not dependent on these, said Plastal’s national managing director Gerd Hammerschmidt. Production will continue as usual and employees will continue to be paid, at least until May 2009. He told news media that the insolvency petition will keep the German assets from being tapped in the Swedish proceedings.

According to Hammerschmidt, the German group has enough orders to continue producing until 2013 – although reports indicate that some of the local units, in particular Weißenburg and Pappenheim – are in better shape than others. He said he expects to “restore stability” soon. For the present, a 25% decline in new orders has been balanced by short-time working. Insolvency administrator Beck described the German workforce as “highly motivated.”

As far as is known, the Menzolit Compounds Group (Heidelberg / Germany; www.menzolit.com) as well as Plastal SAS in France, which manufactures customised body parts for the “Smart” in Hambach near the German border, along with Plastal Spain in Sant Adreu de La Barca, near Barcelona, have not yet filed for insolvency.