In an exclusive interview earlier this week, Langley Holdings chairman and chief executive Tony Langley revealed that he was in talks with PricewaterhouseCoopers to acquire the UK arm, which continues to trade, following its fall into administration on 5 December 2011.

While he stressed that the deal was yet to be done, Langley confirmed that he had visited the company earlier this week to meet with management.

"I’m already in discussions with the UK administrators and I expect to have a Manroland subsidiary in the UK," said Langley.

"But there are two parties involved and I’m only one of them. We are pursuing an interest and we are pursuing it strongly."

The deal to buy Manroland’s German sheetfed business was signed last Wednesday (1 February), but the deal didn’t receive regulatory approval until Tuesday (7 February).

Following the approval, which was seen as a formality by those close to the deal, Langley spoke to the entire Offenbach workforce earlier today. During the meeting, he said that "today is the beginning of a new era" for the company.

As well as Manroland's Offenbach production facility, Langley Holdings, a €500m (£415m) turnover engineering group based in Retford, Nottinghamshire, will take on more than 50 of Manroland’s international sales operations, spread across 40 countries.

See next Friday's issue of PrintWeek (17 February) for our interview with Manroland Sheetfed's new owner, Tony Langley