France-based customer engagement company Quadient has completed the previously announced sale of its Automated Packaging Solutions (APS) business and production facility in Drachten, Netherlands, to private equity firm Standard Investment.

Standard Investment acquired the business in a deal valued at more than €20m ($23m), the two companies having entered the initial agreement in June.

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The divestiture is in line with Quadient’s strategy to streamline its portfolio and optimise its industrial presence.

Following the deal, the company will be able to externalise around €14m ($16m) of the production costs related to its Mail-Related Solutions business each year.

Quadient CEO Geoffrey Godet said: “The successful closing of this transaction marks another important step in our Back to Growth strategy.

“The resizing of our industrial footprint will help us support the high profitability of our Mail-Related Solutions in the future and lead to significant cost optimisations over time.

“We are committed to conducting our activities in a responsible manner and I am pleased that we found, in Standard Investment, the best home to support our talented APS and Drachten teams towards a promising future.

“As both our organisations advance in their new journey, at Quadient, we will strengthen our focus on our high-growth solutions, bringing more innovation to market for the benefit of our customers.”

The Drachten production site will continue to supply mid-range document systems solutions to Quadient for an unspecified period of time.

After this, Quadient plans to gradually shift its production to other industrial sites and suppliers.

Standard Investment will take on the Drachten site’s sales, marketing, service, research and development (R&D) and production teams, which totals around 240 employees.

Standard Investment partner Herbert Schilperoord said: “We look forward to working together with [APS’s] management team in the coming months on how we can best transform the organisation into an independently operating company, [with] corporate carve-outs being one of the focus areas of Standard Investment.”