AUTOBOX USERS IN DARK OVER CLOSURE

The administrators of German finishing solutions manufacturer Kolbus have now closed its subsidiary Autobox, leaving Graffica, the ANZ representative, in the dark.

There are some 30+ users of AutoBox custom boxmaking equipment in Australia and New Zealand, running around 70 units between them.

Neil Southerington, director of Graffica, said, “I have not been informed officially of anything. However, my Kolbus email has shut down.”

“I’m really not sure how it is all going to work out. They have had a service and spare parts guy based in Sydney for some years, Thomas Mueller, but some will not know him.”

Kolbus put itself into self-administration two months ago. It is a similar mechanism to Chapter 11 in the US, where a company can keep its creditors at bay while it tries to trade its way out of its financial issues.

Now it has closed Autobox, which has been operating since 1978, and which Kolbus acquired six years ago, when it sold its perfect binding and book-line business to Muller Martini to focus on packaging solutions.

Kolbus is aiming to celebrate its 250th anniversary next year, it was originally established by Prussian soldier Christian Henrich Kolbus as a smithy in 1775. It reported a successful drupa, where it had a big stand in Hall 1.

Graffica has now joined with another established European manufacturer of custom box machines, EM-Project.