On 1 June 2009, insolvency proceedings were initiated at the district court in Ansbach / Germany with regard to the assets of Plastal Holding GmbH (Weißenburg) and Plastal GmbH (Weißenburg). Joachim Exner and Siegfried Beck from the law firm Dr. Beck and Partner (Nuremberg; www.ra-dr-beck.de) were appointed insolvency administrators.

Since filing for insolvency at the beginning of March 2009 (see Plasteurope.com of 09.03.2009), the business of the automotive components supplier has continued without interruption, said Beck – and even after the opening of the proceedings, the company will be able to plan reliably at all six sites until the end of the year. The company has been able to reach agreements with the car makers that also include a mode of financing.

Despite all this, the upcoming restructuring measures also include redundancies. Of the 2,200 employees in Germany at the time the insolvency was announced, it seems that 1,900 will remain. 155 jobs will go to prevent the closure of one of the plants. The remainder will come from the non-renewal of limited and temporary contracts, and from staff giving notice themselves.

A buyer is currently being sought for Plastal GmbH. According to the law firm, the intention is to sell all the sites jointly. This means that the former traditional company Dynamit Nobel Kunststoff (DNK) is up for sale again after being taken over by Plastal in 2005 – see Plasteurope.com of 17.11.2005. PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC; Frankfurt / Germany; www.pwc.com) has been charged with looking after the sale. Because all contractual links with the Swedish parent company have been severed, various acquisition models can be developed and tested, said Beck. The OEMs supplied by Plastal will also be involved in the selection process.