Landqart
The Landqart AG (without U) is a Swiss paper mill specializing in high security paper , in particular bank note substrates , passport and visa papers. The company in Landquart GR has two paper machines with a total capacity of over 10,500 tons per year of cylinder mold paper (PM1 7,500, PM2 2,500 tons).
The approximately 250 employees at Landqart AG produce banknote paper for more than 50 national banks. The company is the only security paper mill in Switzerland, the only manufacturer of paper for printing Swiss franc banknotes , and the only manufacturer of euro banknote paper outside the euro area.
history
The factory has existed in Landquart in the canton of Graubünden since 1872 . At the beginning, packaging paper was successfully produced, so that branches were founded, but were also closed again. Fires broke out several times, leading to the construction of a new plant at the end of the 1930s. During the hyperinflationary years, the plant benefited from the strong demand for paper for banknotes. In the 1940 and 1950s, the factory was the only Swiss manufacturer of parchment paper . The subsidiary, Couvertfabrik Emmishofen AG in Kreuzlingen, was sold 86% to Heinrich Wipf in 1949, and then completely in 1951. In 1972 the company began specializing in securities and banknote paper, and in 1973 it merged with the Zurich paper factory on the Sihl. This company sold all shares in the factory in Landquart together with its sister company Dresden Papiere in Heidenau in eastern Germany for around 20 million francs on December 14, 2001 to the US pulp group Mercer International , based in Zurich. From August 1, 2007, Landqart belonged to the Canadian group of companies Fortress Paper . Until October 2010, PM1 produced specialty papers as a second mainstay for the graphic market and industrial applications, but was then also converted to security paper by 2011 in order to be able to expand its production.
After Landqart had already sold the company property and building in a sale-lease-back transaction in 2016 , it ran into financial difficulties at the end of 2017 - after an international customer had canceled a major order and thus sales and even more sales expectations collapsed - at the end of 2017 and some short-time work a. In December 2017, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) took over 90% of the company shares in Landqart AG and Landqart Management and Services AG , which holds the relevant patents for the activities of Landqart AG. This step, the first takeover by the SNB in decades, was necessary because only Landqart has the technology to produce the three-layer Durasafe substrate for the ninth series of Swiss franc banknotes . Orell Füssli Holding took over the remaining 10% of the companies, one third of whose subsidiary Orell Füssli Sicherheitsdruck AG is also owned by the SNB and prints the Swiss franc bills. The total purchase price was CHF 21.5 million.
literature
- Bernhard Alexander: Origin and development of the Landquart paper mills. Zizers 1951.