Baldwin buys out the competition

Oxy-Dry is a German-based manufacturer of accessories and controls across the sheetfed, commercial web, packaging and newspaper markets. Baldwin has signed a definitive agreement to purchase the company as part of its efforts to expand its presence in its core market segment of accessories and controls.

Peter Tkachuk, managing director of Baldwin in Australia, says the acquisition will add a greater range of products to its lineup and allow a further synergy across the existing products offered by Baldwin.

“Oxy-Dry offer a great range of specialised press cleaning and accessory products,” says Tkachuk. “The company already has a reasonable presence across the Australia industry and has been a good competitor for us, so we're looking forward to having them onboard.”

Plunkett & Johnson is currently responsible for distributing the Oxy-Dry range of products across Australia and Tkachuk confirms that he does not expect to see any changes to the arrangement “in the foreseeable future.”

Baldwin confirms it is looking for opportunities to combine the technology of the two companies, and that it is planning on using its existing market strength across Asia to help expand the Oxy-Dry range of products.

“Oxy-Dry's brush technology further strengthens Baldwin's position as a full solution provider for cleaning applications in the offset printing market, particularly in the newspaper and commercial web marketplace,” says Karl Puehringer, COO of Baldwin. “We will be able to better serve our combined customer base with this broader range of Baldwin and Oxy-Dry products.”

Gerald A. Nathe, chairman and CEO Baldwin, confirms that Oxy-Dry was an acquisition target for the company because of its close alignment with the existing Baldwin range of technology and offerings.

“The acquisition of Oxy-Dry is an important step in the continuing process of building Baldwin's presence in its core market segment of accessories and controls,” says Nathe. “Oxy-Dry is a well-known and well-respected name in the industry, particularly with its brush blanket cleaning technology. We are pleased to have Oxy-Dry become a part of Baldwin Technology.”