The 20,000sqm St Gallen site has been sold to the Hälg Group for an undisclosed sum. 

Gallus will continue to occupy its main building, and will be the anchor tenant at the site, which is set to become a new business campus. 

Heidelberg expects the transaction to complete in Q1 of its new financial year that began on 1 April.

The manufacturer plans to expand its portfolio of digital printing products for labels. 

Newly-appoined Heidelberg CEO Dr Ludwin Monz commented: "With targeted investments in the Gallus Group, we want to gain further momentum in the growing label market.

"The reorientation of our site in St. Gallen into a competence center for digital label printing underlines the high strategic importance for Heidelberg in the packaging sector. We welcome, that the commitment of entrepreneurs Marcel and Roger Baumer [of Hälg Group] will create an innovative environment in St Gallen from which we can also benefit."

Heidelberg decided to retain the Gallus business after its €120m (£100m) deal to sell the operation to Benpac fell through at the eleventh hour last year. 

Gallus has operations in Switzerland and Germany. Around 160 employees work in St Gallen, where Heidelberg now plans to focus the Gallus activities on digital printing including equipment, service, software and ink. A new Gallus Experience Center should be in place by the end of this year.

A Heidelberg spokesperson told Printweek that Gallus would continue to use “almost half of the space” at St Gallen, with its Swiss and German locations already focused on specific competences. 

The plant in Langgöns, Germany, is responsible for the complete assembly of the ECS,  Labelmaster, Labelfire Conventional and Converting Modules and the assembly of the Gallus RCS.

“The development engineers who continue to develop our inkjet technology are based in Wiesloch, and the assembly of the Digital Print Unit also takes place there. Herisau is our Competence Center for Screen Printing

St Gallen is the competence center for digital printing, and this is also the headquarters of the Gallus Group with the management, R&D management, finance, sales, service, marketing and procurement, and the Gallus Experience Center are located,” the spokesperson explained. 

The sale of the St Gallen site follows on from a number of other sites sales, including part of its main Wiesloch-Walldorf site in Germany, and its former UK HQ in Brentford.