North American Cerutti Corporation Announces Sale of Bernal, North American Rotary Die Business

North American Cerutti Corporation (“NAC”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Cerutti Group (Officine Meccaniche G. Cerutti S.p.A.), a world leader in packaging machinery, today announced the sale of Bernal, Inc. (“Bernal”), NAC’s rotary die manufacturer, to Atlas Die LLC, a portfolio company of Chicago-based Keystone Capital,Inc., leader in the flat bed dies and wrap around dies.

North American Cerutti will keep manufacturing, selling and servicing complete web fed platen cutting and rotary cutting converting lines through its division ZERAND based in New Berlin, WI.
The sale includes Bernal’s principal manufacturing facility based in Rochester Hills, MI, and Bernal’s 51% interest in the Bernal-Yawa joint venture in Shanghai, China. Bernal is one of the world leaders in the design, development and production of rotary dies and modules for the packaging and consumer product industry.

Giancarlo Cerutti, Chairman and CEO of North American Cerutti and the Cerutti Group, said: "This transaction represents an important step in our restructuring process and in the realignment of Cerutti Group’s product portfolio as we shift focus to our core businesses, the production and sale of printing and converting lines”. “Bernal, with his main focus on excelling in sophisticated rotary tools and consumer product systems, became less strategic for the Cerutti Group; the new combination of Bernal and Atlas Dies, is indeed a very strong industrial operation which will create new opportunities of growth for Bernal and its employees.”

Giancarlo Cerutti concluded:“I want to sincerely thank all the management and employees of Bernal for their commitment to the Company and the Cerutti Group in the last 11 years and for the work that we have done together for the development of Bernal and its market”.

“The acquisition of Bernal reflects our continued commitment to support the growth of our business,” said Kenneth Smott, President and CEO at Atlas Die. “With its strong manufacturing and distribution channels in the U.S. and China, Bernal enhances our technology leadership and extends our access to key clients.”

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