Germany's EDS confirms closure of Romania's largest commercial printing plant at Ghimbav

Euro-Druckservice (EDS), the German group that owns Romania's largest commercial printing plant, has confirmed it will permanently close its site in Ghimbav, Brașov county, on 31 December 2026. The confirmation follows earlier reporting by Profit.ro and was set out in an official communication reported by BizBrașov.

The plant was inaugurated in 2008 after an investment of €20 million and grew into the country's largest commercial printing operation. It specialises in rotary offset printing, prepress and high-volume logistics services for catalogues and advertising brochures. Its 84 employees have already been notified that their employment contracts will be terminated.

Falling demand meets rising costs

EDS links the decision to a continuing contraction in demand on the commercial print market, combined with a pronounced increase in operating costs in Romania. Group management pointed to disproportionate rises in energy tariffs and labour expenses, alongside an accelerated increase in raw material prices — paper above all — according to BizBrașov.

The comparison drawn by management was explicitly relative. Ghimbav's cost base did not simply rise; it rose faster than at the company's other plants in its European network. Paper and energy are the two dominant variable inputs in high-volume offset work, which makes a widening cost gap between sister plants decisive when a group allocates print runs internally. EDS frames the Romanian exit as part of a broader optimisation of production capacity across that network.

Revenue down, result into loss

The Romanian subsidiary's most recent full-year figures illustrate the squeeze. The key indicators reported by BizBrașov are:

• Turnover fell to 90.97 million lei from 101.98 million lei a year earlier, a decline of roughly 11%.
• The company moved from profit into a net loss of 5.5 million lei.
• All 84 employees of the Ghimbav unit have been notified of dismissal.

The 31 December 2026 closing date leaves customers a little over three months to re-source print runs planned for 2027. For catalogue and leaflet campaigns, which are commissioned months in advance, that timeline overlaps directly with the planning cycle for next year's retail promotions.

A network trimmed to four countries

EDS has been controlled since 2022 by the Czech investment fund Jet Investment and employs more than 1,300 people in total. After the Ghimbav shutdown it will continue to operate printing plants in Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.

In Romania the group will retain only its commercial office in Bucharest. That structure indicates EDS intends to keep selling into the Romanian market while serving it from production sites elsewhere in central Europe, converting what was domestic output into cross-border supply of printed matter.

Impact on the Romanian print market

The closure removes the country's largest commercial printing capacity at the end of 2026. Volumes currently produced at Ghimbav will have to be placed either with smaller domestic printers or with plants abroad, adding freight and longer lead times to work that is highly time-sensitive. Short runs are the segment domestic printers are best positioned to absorb; the largest catalogue and brochure orders are the ones most likely to move out of the country.

The decision also signals how the cost differentials cited by EDS — energy, wages and paper — are being read by a group with alternatives inside the European Union. With demand for commercial print still contracting, the capacity being withdrawn at Ghimbav is unlikely to be rebuilt domestically in the near term.