Tamedia sells Swissprinters stake to Ringier and NZZ
Tamedia is selling its 16-percent minority stake in the printing company Swissprinters to the holding company SWP. SWP is a joint subsidiary of the media companies Ringier and NZZ.
Details of the sale were not disclosed, Swissprinters announced on Wednesday. Tamedia media spokesman Christoph Zimmer told news agency SDA that the sale would have no operational impact on the printing of the company's own newspapers. These would continue to be printed at Tamedia's three centers in Bern, Zurich and Bussigny near Lausanne.
Tamedia had acquired a stake in Swissprinters in the course of the takeover of the French-speaking Swiss publishing house Edipresse, which was initiated at the end of 2009. The stake was held by Tamedia Publications Romandes, which comprises all the Tamedia Group's print products in French-speaking Switzerland, including the magazines Bilan and Femina.
Femina was previously printed in Renens
According to Tamedia spokesman Zimmer, Femina has been printed at the Swissprinters site in Renens near Lausanne until now. Just the day before, Swissprinters had announced that it would not close the Renens site, contrary to previous fears.
Instead, the activities of the previous operator Impriméries
réunies Lausanne (IRL), which joined Swissprinters in mid-2006 as the then Edipresse print shop, will be continued by a newly founded company called IRL+. IRL+ is managed by former Edipresse board member Michel Berney.
Strategic realignment of Tamedia
Tamedia had wanted to divest its magazine and customer printing operations as part of a strategic realignment, Zimmer explained. Where the magazine Femina, which belongs to the media group, will be printed in the future is still open. The magazine Bilan has always been printed by Stämpfli-Verlag in Bern.
Swissprinters was formed in 2005 from the merger of all the non-newspaper printing operations of Ringier and NZZ. Ringier previously held 58.8 percent of the shares, the NZZ 25.2 percent. (SDA)
