Trelleborg selling printing blanket operation to Continental

Sweden-based polymer technology developer Trelleborg Group has signed an agreement to sell its printing blankets operations to German manufacturing company Continental A.G., which plans to integrate it into its ContiTech business.

The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

In a news release, Trelleborg officials noted that printing blankets are used for all types of offset printing, as well as flexo and digital printing. The operation also includes a carrier sleeve product line for packaging flexo printing.

“This divestment marks our exit from the printing blanket market,” said Trelleborg president and CEO Peter Nilsson. “The operation is global, holds a leading position and has developed well under Trelleborg’s management. It is therefore gratifying that a new owner is taking over who can develop it further.”

“With this, we are also concluding the implementation of the strategic review of December 2019, which was tasked with evaluating various structural initiatives for a number of operations,” Nilsson continued. “Since then, we have divested companies with a combined total of more than SEK 3,200 million in sales. We are now fully focused on continuing to develop the Group and our well-performing and well-positioned business areas.”

The divestment of the printing blankets operation is expected to be finalized in the first half year of 2022.