Following its difficult start to 2008, in which it was declared insolvent, the Austrian injection moulding machine manufacturer Battenfeld Kunststoffmaschinen GmbH has announced that it is to be taken over by the Vienna-based Wittmann Group.

The take over will be effective from 01 April 2008. After closing on 31 March 2008, the headquarters and production location Kottingbrunn, Battenfeld’s worldwide sales subsidiaries, the German customer service company and the previously independent Service Unit will belong to Wittmann.

The merger follows the consent of the board of creditors and is subject to an inspection in accordance with anti-trust laws.

Wittmann is a global manufacturer of peripheral devices for the plastics industry. These include robots and automation equipment, automatic material supply and drying plus recycling of the plastics, as well as tool tempering and cooling. This will make Battenfeld and Wittmann together the first company in the world that is able to offer a fully-integrated product range for injection moulding.

Battenfeld and Wittmann together employ more than 1500 employees worldwide. Both companies will continue to offer their products and services separately on the world market.

According to Wittman’s owner, Dr Werner Wittmann, alongside Battenfeld’s Managing Director, Georg Tinschert, “The integration of both companies leads to significant advantages for our customers and we are sure to enlarge our worldwide market position in progress.”

For more information about Battenfeld’s recent financial troubles, see: Turbulent month for machinery manufacturer, http://www.performance-materials.net/htm/f20080224.272620.htm.