Donauwörth/Waiblingen. Schätzl Druck & Medien is one of the most successful digital printing service providers in the field of mass customization in Germany and thus complements the Elanders Group’s strategy in the online print and highly individualized print products segment. The dynamic company has “reinvented itself” in recent years, making the transition from offset printer to agile digital printer. The acquisition of Schätzl makes Elanders one of the most flexible digital printing service providers in Central Europe and strengthens its position in the fast-growing market for customized print products.

Following the completed corporate restructuring, Schätzl Druck und Medien is the “extended workbench” for many online printing service providers. The company has mastered the use of highly automated manufacturing processes to turn printed products, especially books, into reality for print runs of any size, right down to individual single copies, and thus ideally complements the Elanders Group’s portfolio of services.

“We have come a big step closer to our goal of meeting the wishes of our customers in terms of product variety, individuality, service, logistics, and an optimum price/performance ratio in almost every run,”
says Sven Burkhard, Executive Board Member of the Print & Packaging Group at Elanders. “Schätzl is one of the specialists for mass customization in print. Over the past few years, Ulrich Schätzl and his team have done an excellent job of cutting out old habits and transforming the traditional printing company into a powerful, agile print service provider – especially for online print providers. The acquisition of Schätzl enables us to position our services in almost all segments of digital printing – regardless of the print run – and to offer print products with an extremely shortened time-to-market to our B2B customers who are directly connected to us online. “

Elanders is already one of the leading digital print providers in Europe and has made a name for itself as a supplier to leading online print providers and with its own online brands, among other things. The company offers an impressive product portfolio ranging from photo products in the B2C segment to online-driven B2B services for print and intelligent packaging solutions. “In addition to our 13 branches in 9 countries spread over 4 continents, we now realize print products with four locations in Germany, from large-scale inkjet print runs in Waiblingen, to highly individual, small-volume print runs in Donauwörth, to short- and long-run packaging in Kaisheim and Herrenberg. This flexibility in integrated print procurement gives our customers new opportunities in marketing and publishing production. In conjunction with our worldwide network, we can thus operate globally and produce locally. This makes our service portfolio particularly attractive for companies with global operations.”Sven Burkhard continues.

Sven Burkhard (left) and Ulrich Schätzl (right) look forward to their joint entrepreneurial future
© Elanders/Schätzl Druck & Medien

“For us, Schätzl Druck & Medien is an important building block in our strategy for the future,” explains Sven Burkhard. “More and more, we are seeing a clear increase in print-on-demand demand on the customer side. At Elanders, we responded early on by investing in digital inkjet printing, and by largely synchronizing our machinery and production planning systems globally, we can now set new standards in terms of price/performance.”

Schätzl’s net sales in the last twelve months were around EUR 15 million with good profitability. The company will be consolidated into the Group from July 2021.