Heidelberg's realignment
Printing: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen plans to expand its production of custom-built machines.
Last December, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen (Heidelberg), the world's largest printing press manufacturer, reported on the past year and took a look at its cards. According to Bernhard Schreier, CEO since 1999, 2004 was an important year in the recent history of the recently ailing company. Heidelberg, which was transformed and expanded by predecessor Hartmut Mehdorn in 1996 into a comprehensive solutions provider for the graphic arts industry, had to bid farewell to the new digital and web offset printing segments again in the "drupa year" of 2004.
The transformation into an all-encompassing provider took place at a very unfavorable time and was slowly draining Heidelberg's resources. At the beginning of 2004, the digital printing division finally went to the former joint venture partner Eastman Kodak (today: Kodak Nexpress) and the newspaper and commercial web offset division to the company Goss. While Heidelberg is compensated depending on the sales success of the Nexpress and Digimaster digital printing systems, the company now holds 15 percent of the printing press manufacturer Goss.
In addition, major shareholder RWE sold its shares shortly before drupa. 35 percent of the 50 percent share package was sold directly. Half of this was sold to US investors, followed by investors from the UK and Germany. As a result, drupa became the decisive trade show for Heidelberg. Bernhard Schreier: "For Heidelberg, drupa 2004 was firstly an indicator of how the industry and our competitors were presenting themselves, and secondly how customers were reacting to our realignment. We wanted to know where we stand in the graphic arts industry following the company's reorganization."
Nine months after drupa, it is clear that the reorganization has at least not resulted in any major loss of image or confidence. This is perhaps also due to the company's innovative strength: with 50 new products or innovations in the areas of prepress, printing and postpress, Heidelberg recently set off a small firework display of innovations at drupa. The change of direction on the part of customers was confirmed by incoming orders of more than one billion euros - 20 percent more than in the previous year. This means that the first quarter of the new financial year was successful again after five quarters.
Not out of the woods yetHowever, Schreier knows that the crisis is not over yet: "We have sold many units to China in the past - but this development is difficult to predict for various reasons such as taxes and political decisions." Predictions are difficult for this market, as the key figures often deviate from reality. However, Schreier does not (yet) see countries such as China as an urgent problem: 88 percent of printed matter is produced in industrialized countries, the rest in the "emerging countries" - the "still underdeveloped countries". For this reason alone, Heidelberg must continue to focus on the industrialized countries, added Schreier.
However, China is doubly important for the company - both as a market and as a production location. It therefore wants to start producing in China this year: Smaller products and perhaps also small printing machines. Schreier is not yet sure whether it will be possible to produce high-quality Heidelberg presses outside of the Wiesloch production site to the south of Heidelberg in the foreseeable future.
Customer orientationHeidelberg appointed Jürgen Rautert to the Management Board last summer. Rautert, formerly Head of the Postpress Business Area (print finishing) and now responsible for Technology, wants Heidelberg to be perceived more strongly in the market as a flexible company in terms of mechanical engineering and configurations. As a successful example, he cited the CutStar product, a machine that cuts paper rolls into sheets and feeds them to the press. This enables print shops to use the cheaper roll paper for sheetfed offset presses. Another example is the Speedmaster 102 Duo. Last year, this technology was also made available in medium format with the CD 74 Duo. Both Duos are sheetfed presses with flexo printing units integrated alongside offset.
At the beginning of 2005, an eight-color press with upstream and downstream flexographic printing units and an additional offset printing unit at the end for the matt varnish job went into production. As the longest sheetfed press, the CD 102-LY+8+YLYLY+ 1X3 press with 16 printing units impressively demonstrates what Heidelberg can offer its customers.
"We have specialists to better cover the increasingly complex requirements. Specific requests can now be realized in just a few days instead of several months as before." Machines tailored to customer requirements can be produced from the SM 52 series to the CD 74 Duo and the CD 102.
Service as a growth opportunity Print shops could achieve good margins with such machines, added Rautert. In his opinion, there are of course also applications for this. As an example, he mentioned an "ultra-high-end packaging" for the chocolate manufacturer Lindt. However, he sees potential not only for the western markets, but above all in Asia, where packaging is an important sales argument.
Bernhard Steinel, Head of Global Service for Sheetfed and Prepress Products, gave an overview of what is known as Systemservice. He presented the new, web-based "Remote Platform", with which printers can connect to a regional specialist at the control station at the touch of a button. In this way, the expert obtains help from the Global Expert Network.
For quality assurance, Steinel presented a test form called "Quality Pass", which is based on Fogra requirements and will be available from the second quarter of 2005. The BizModel simulation software is designed to eliminate bottlenecks in production operations.
Jürgen Rautert, responsible for technology.
Bernhard Schreier, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board.
Bernhard Steinel, Head of Service worldwide for sheetfed and prepress products.
Heidelberg strengthens customized mechanical engineering and service.
BizModel creates transparency in operations, helps to optimize production and serves as a tool for investment decisions.
Jürgen Franck
The transformation into an all-encompassing provider took place at a very unfavorable time and was slowly draining Heidelberg's resources. At the beginning of 2004, the digital printing division finally went to the former joint venture partner Eastman Kodak (today: Kodak Nexpress) and the newspaper and commercial web offset division to the company Goss. While Heidelberg is compensated depending on the sales success of the Nexpress and Digimaster digital printing systems, the company now holds 15 percent of the printing press manufacturer Goss.
In addition, major shareholder RWE sold its shares shortly before drupa. 35 percent of the 50 percent share package was sold directly. Half of this was sold to US investors, followed by investors from the UK and Germany. As a result, drupa became the decisive trade show for Heidelberg. Bernhard Schreier: "For Heidelberg, drupa 2004 was firstly an indicator of how the industry and our competitors were presenting themselves, and secondly how customers were reacting to our realignment. We wanted to know where we stand in the graphic arts industry following the company's reorganization."
Nine months after drupa, it is clear that the reorganization has at least not resulted in any major loss of image or confidence. This is perhaps also due to the company's innovative strength: with 50 new products or innovations in the areas of prepress, printing and postpress, Heidelberg recently set off a small firework display of innovations at drupa. The change of direction on the part of customers was confirmed by incoming orders of more than one billion euros - 20 percent more than in the previous year. This means that the first quarter of the new financial year was successful again after five quarters.
Not out of the woods yetHowever, Schreier knows that the crisis is not over yet: "We have sold many units to China in the past - but this development is difficult to predict for various reasons such as taxes and political decisions." Predictions are difficult for this market, as the key figures often deviate from reality. However, Schreier does not (yet) see countries such as China as an urgent problem: 88 percent of printed matter is produced in industrialized countries, the rest in the "emerging countries" - the "still underdeveloped countries". For this reason alone, Heidelberg must continue to focus on the industrialized countries, added Schreier.
However, China is doubly important for the company - both as a market and as a production location. It therefore wants to start producing in China this year: Smaller products and perhaps also small printing machines. Schreier is not yet sure whether it will be possible to produce high-quality Heidelberg presses outside of the Wiesloch production site to the south of Heidelberg in the foreseeable future.
Customer orientationHeidelberg appointed Jürgen Rautert to the Management Board last summer. Rautert, formerly Head of the Postpress Business Area (print finishing) and now responsible for Technology, wants Heidelberg to be perceived more strongly in the market as a flexible company in terms of mechanical engineering and configurations. As a successful example, he cited the CutStar product, a machine that cuts paper rolls into sheets and feeds them to the press. This enables print shops to use the cheaper roll paper for sheetfed offset presses. Another example is the Speedmaster 102 Duo. Last year, this technology was also made available in medium format with the CD 74 Duo. Both Duos are sheetfed presses with flexo printing units integrated alongside offset.
At the beginning of 2005, an eight-color press with upstream and downstream flexographic printing units and an additional offset printing unit at the end for the matt varnish job went into production. As the longest sheetfed press, the CD 102-LY+8+YLYLY+ 1X3 press with 16 printing units impressively demonstrates what Heidelberg can offer its customers.
"We have specialists to better cover the increasingly complex requirements. Specific requests can now be realized in just a few days instead of several months as before." Machines tailored to customer requirements can be produced from the SM 52 series to the CD 74 Duo and the CD 102.
Service as a growth opportunity Print shops could achieve good margins with such machines, added Rautert. In his opinion, there are of course also applications for this. As an example, he mentioned an "ultra-high-end packaging" for the chocolate manufacturer Lindt. However, he sees potential not only for the western markets, but above all in Asia, where packaging is an important sales argument.
Bernhard Steinel, Head of Global Service for Sheetfed and Prepress Products, gave an overview of what is known as Systemservice. He presented the new, web-based "Remote Platform", with which printers can connect to a regional specialist at the control station at the touch of a button. In this way, the expert obtains help from the Global Expert Network.
For quality assurance, Steinel presented a test form called "Quality Pass", which is based on Fogra requirements and will be available from the second quarter of 2005. The BizModel simulation software is designed to eliminate bottlenecks in production operations.
Jürgen Rautert, responsible for technology.
Bernhard Schreier, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board.
Bernhard Steinel, Head of Service worldwide for sheetfed and prepress products.
Heidelberg strengthens customized mechanical engineering and service.
BizModel creates transparency in operations, helps to optimize production and serves as a tool for investment decisions.
Jürgen Franck
