W+D and Kern Announce Marketing and Technology Alliance
OVERLAND PARK, KS—April 11, 2012—Winkler+Dünnebier GmbH, including its subsidiary W+D Direct Marketing Solutions GmbH, a market leader in machines and system solutions for production, printing and flexible processing of envelopes, and Kern AG, a leading provider of inserting systems, peripherals and end-to-end solutions, have agreed to expand their long-standing relationship. The cooperation, which has until now been limited to the sale of specific products, will be expanded to a global market and technology alliance.
The announcement was made jointly today by Jochen Engelke, chairman and CEO of Winkler+Dünnebier, and Uli Kern, owner and managing Director of Kern AG.
“The two companies complement each other perfectly,” stated Engelke. “The focus of activities is on the production and processing of high-quality envelope-based mailings.”
“Strong similarities also exist with regard to the understanding of quality. Standing for the highest quality is tradition for both companies and the current product portfolios of both companies demonstrate this impressively,” added Kern,
Thanks to their complementary product ranges, W+D and Kern are now able to serve their respective customers with integrated solutions covering the complete process of mail from production to finishing, addressing transactional and direct mail markets as well as increasingly important hybrid markets. The sales and service organizations and networks of both companies will be positively affected as they now will be able to offer interesting possibilities for a forward and backward integration along the mail value chain.
Existing customers will be able to substantially enhance the performance of their installed base and synergies in international distribution and service will generate additional benefits for customers giving them solutions out of “one hand.” Under this agreement, both companies will have mutual access to the technology and resources that will serve to accelerate the innovation process of both companies and result in the faster market introduction of important new products and solutions.
A representative selection from the entire product range will be exhibited by Winkler+Dünnebier GmbH in Hall 15/C55 and Kern AG in Hall 06/C79 during the upcoming drupa, May 3-16 in Düsseldorf.
About Winkler+Dünnebier
Winkler+Dünnebier (W+D) is the world’s leading technology and systems solution partner for the mailing and hygiene industry. With its innovative and tailor-made system solutions and services, W+D focuses on the entire internal value chain of its customers. In the Mail Solutions business segment, W+D is developing and selling system solutions for manufacturing, printing, inserting and packaging of envelopes while the segment Hygiene Solutions encompasses system solutions for the manufacturing and packaging of tissue fold and hygiene personal care products. The company, which was founded in 1913, has production sites in Germany, the USA and Malaysia as well as an international sales and service network around the world. W+D is a group company of the Körber Group, which organizes within the Körber Process Solutions Division it’s globally operating companies serving with their system solutions and services various industries such as the mailing, tissue and hygiene industry.
About Kern
The Kern Group develops, manufactures and globally markets products, solutions and services in the fields of document inserting systems, pre- and post-processing for digital printers, ADF software and logistics. Among Kern’s customers are service providers, letter shops, banks, government offices, telephone companies, public utilities, insurance companies and companies in the graphics sector. Since its founding by Marc Kern in 1947, Kern has remained family owned; today the company is managed in the second generation by Uli Kern, the current owner. The group is present in over 60 countries, employs approximately 1,000 people and generates a turnover of more than 130 million euros.
Source: W+D.
