RUWEL gains time to search for investors

"It would be an absolute disgrace to close down a company that has well-filled order books and has been established on the market for decades, and to dismiss all remaining employees to let them face unemployment" said Horst Piepenburg, the insolvency administrator who has taken direct control of RUWEL GmbH since insolvency proceedings were instituted on 1st May 2009. This statement is based on consistant in-balance figures that have been earned since that date. However, to achieve this the company had been forced to dismiss half of its workforce. "Our customers have realised that if a quality supplier like RUWEL were to drop out of the market, this would have far-reaching strategic consequences on their assured-supplies situation in Europe", said Piepenburg who is happy about the positive trend in new orders with a book-to-bill ratio averaging 2.6 over the last few months. In addition, RUWEL has profited from the delivery problems of some of its competitors due to quality defects or excessively long delivery times as a result of having reduced their capacities too drastically. "We have free capacities and a tremendously motivated team", said Horst Piepenburg with satisfaction. Under the management of the insolvency administrator, RUWEL will now use the 2nd half of the year to find suitable investors, a search that has so far proved to be rather difficult: "With a workforce of about 220 in Geldern, we have probably reached an operating size that will prove to be economic in the long run, possibly even allowing the company to fetch back the one or other employee who had been laid off", said Horst Piepenburg with cautious optimism. Since: "Without a solution for some 200 pending actions against unfair dismissal in Geldern, we shall not find an investor who will be willing to continue our business activities into next year. There is simply not enough work for so many employees. "If the company were forced to close down, all the employees would be out on the street and empty-handed. "I am a passionate reorganiser, but I need to be given a free hand …," said the prominent insolvency administrator. Next week he will also be giving his comments on the future of RUWEL's plant in Pfullingen.