DUROtherm Kunststoffverarbeitung GmbH

WINTERGERST assists with the sale of the DUROtherm Group to swissplast AG in Switzerland

With the entry of swissplast AG, the DUROtherm Group wins a strong strategic shareholder. The acquisition significantly strengthens the presence of swissplast in Central Europe. In the course of a competitive bidding process, swissplast AG managed to prevail over other strategic bidders and financial investors. The interdisciplinary deal team at WINTERGERST Societät für Unternehmer-Beratung assisted the investor search.

The DUROtherm Group, based in Haiterbach, Baden-Württemberg, which maintains other facilities in Lindlar, Krupka (Czech Republic) and Sennwald (Switzerland) counts among the largest providers of thermoforming in Europe. DUROtherm is specialized in the development and production of sophisticated thermoformed plastic parts.

The company had fallen into difficulty due to the challenges facing the plastics industry in terms of both costs and demand, exacerbated by the complex integration of a recently acquired production plant. As a result, the central task of WINTERGERST was to set up a competitive investor search process under great time pressure.

A key success factor was the close networking of financial and operational expertise. This allowed the team to develop a well-founded turnaround concept that illustrated the restructuring options available and potential for success. Despite the challenging market environment, a competitive bidding process was created that allowed the transaction to be brought to a successful conclusion.

swissplast AG, a strategic investor that is at home in the thermoforming industry, managed to prevail over the other bidders in an intensive competitive bidding process. The business combination will create a leading European-wide thermoforming specialist with a fully integrated suite of services from design through to series production and close customer proximity.

About DUROtherm Kunststoffverarbeitung GmbH

DUROtherm Kunststoffverarbeitung GmbH, based in Haiterbach, is a traditional player in the plastics processing industry that has specialized in developing and manufacturing sophistcated thermoformed parts and PUR and RIM foamed parts made of plastic. The company has long-standing customer relationships, outstanding technical capabilities and extensive know-how in industrial series production.

About the swissplast group

The swissplast group is based in Sargans and operates in the field of plastics processing. The group is known for its industrial expertise, corporate responsibility and collaborative partnerships with its customers, employees and business partners. Under the motto, “easy to deal with”, swissplast pursues the goal of making transitions straight-forward, transparent and solutions-oriented.

DUROtherm is a traditional company with great technical capabilities, a motivated workforce and a long-standing customer base. It was clear to us at the outset that the deal was more than about production capacity but also responsibility for people, customers and an entire industrial sector Barac Bieri and Ninyan Bieri, both shareholders of swissplast AG

“A key success factor was the interdisciplinary cooperation between our internal team members. The transaction underscores the expertise of WINTERGERST at managing complex investor processes and assisting mid-cap companies with their strategic transactions Christian Scharfenberger, the partner at WINTERGERST Societät für Unternehmer-Beratung in charge of the project, together with Dennis Minder, Florian König and Olivier Teichmeister

Volker Wintergerst

Christian Scharfenberger