Machine clothing giant Albany agrees to buy Heimbach

US-based machine clothing and aerospace engineer

Albany International has agreed to acquire privatelyheld Heimbach Group, the German-based global supplier of paper machine clothing, in a cash deal valued at €153 million.

The deal, which is expected to close in the second half of 2023, will expand Albany’s global footprint and enable further expansion of Heimbach’s product range and reach.

Based in Rochester, New Hampshire, Albany International has 23 facilities in 11 countries, 4,200 employees and annual sales of more than US$1 billion. It says its Machine Clothing division is the world’s leading producer of custom-designed, consumable belts essential for the manufacture of all grades of paper products.

“The acquisition of Heimbach is an exciting opportunity to create significant value for our shareholders as well as for our customers as the partner of choice,” said Bill Higgins, chief executive of Albany, who in March said he plans to retire.

“With Heimbach, we gain increased scale and complementary technology, while broadening our geographic footprint to efficiently serve markets in Europe and Asia. This transaction also provides an opportunity to leverage Albany’s expertise to drive meaningful margin expansion in Heimbach’s operations and cash flows that can be reinvested in high-growth areas of the company. We look forward to working with the Heimbach team and welcoming them to Albany.”

With headquarters at Düren in Germany, Heimbach is a supplier of paper machine clothing for the production of all grades of paper and cardboard on all machine types, with a history going back more than two centuries. It has nine manufacturing sites: in Germany, China, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Italy, and sales in 2022 of €161m ($178m).

Marco Esper, chief executive of Heimbach Group, said: “In Albany International, we found a like-minded partner who shares our commitment to best-in-class customer service and advancing modern paper production. Together, we will leverage our collective product and technology portfolios to become an even better provider to our customers. I am incredibly proud of everything that Heimbach and our team have accomplished and look forward to working closely with Albany’s leadership to reach even greater success.”

Daniel Halftermeyer, president of Albany’s Machine Clothing business, added: “Heimbach is a solid addition to our company,” said. “Their operations are an excellent complement to Albany’s existing network of forwarddeployed manufacturing assets. Together, we look forward to providing our customers with even more value in terms of logistics, delivery capability, advice and service quality.”

In a release Albany International

News In brief

● Saica Group has agreed with the Taschetti family to acquire a minority share in their two corrugated ADDA Ondulati plants in Annone di Brianza and Pietrasanta in Italy. The plants had combined sales of €105 million in 2022.

“This operation is a step forward as it allows us to expand our footprint within the Southern European markets for corrugated board, in this case, by acquiring minority shares of plants in Italy. It is a great opportunity to increase Saica ́s value proposition of sustainable said that Heimbach’s strength in central European markets is an excellent fit with Albany’s northern European presence. Heimbach also brings additional production capacity in Asia, enhancing Albany’s ability to serve clients throughout the region. Heimbach brings complementary technology, said Albany: “In addition to its broad offerings in paper machine clothing, Heimbach brings technologies that support Albany’s differentiation and ability to provide customers with optimized, application-specific solutions.”

● Heimbach’s approach to optimum felt conditioning: see pages 18-21 packaging solutions for our customers” said Ramon Alejandro, president of Saica Group.

● Saica Pack has installed a fully automatic vertical storage system for corrugated board, installed by Duro Felguera Logistic Systems. The project has been developed for the new corrugated cardboard packaging facility in Livingston, Scotland. It is the first project that Duro Felguera has delivered in the United Kingdom.