December 11, 2003 -- In light of recent reorganization announcements of a major industry supplier, Gerd Finkbeiner, Chairman of the second largest manufacturer worldwide of printing systems and solutions, has issued the following statement: MAN Roland is staying the course as the world leader in web offset systems and the second largest manufacturer of sheetfed presses. Our core business is print, and at Drupa this coming May we will be reinforcing that commitment with the slogan: "MAN Roland - We Are Print!" To bring those words to life, we provide our customers with advanced, integrated solutions that help them be profitable today while fueling their growth in the months and years ahead. Our web offerings range from 16-page machines all the way up to 72-page systems. We offer both gap and gapless technology for commercial web printers, while providing newspaper facilities with press and system solutions they need to produce their products more cost effectively. Our sheetfed line encompasses all the popular formats and includes since early this year the largest modern sheetfed press available - the ROLAND 900XXL. That unique offering is poised to revolutionize sheetfed productivity. What’s more, MAN Roland has developed the world’s first offset system that prints without plates. But most importantly, all of our products feature an open system architecture that allows them to integrate into the workflow of any printer, anywhere in the world. That’s in keeping with our philosophy of putting the customer at the center of our universe. It’s the reason why MAN Roland is at the forefront of educating the industry on the advantages of Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) as a way for printers to cut costs and improve their profitability. And it’s why we’d never lock our clients into a proprietary system approach with restricted access and a limited lifespan. There has been some speculation about MAN Roland acquiring one or more of the divisions of a competitor that has fallen on hard times. Those rumors are groundless. We have carefully constructed and fine-tuned our company portfolio to most efficiently serve our customers, and so we are not interested in fire sale acquisitions. MAN Roland will continue to focus on our core competency - the design, manufacture, distribution, integration and servicing of premier printing equipment. We perform all of these functions with the objective of strengthening our position as the industry’s life cycle cost leader. That means our customers get considerably more value over the long term from our solutions than from any other equipment available. It’s a strategic commitment that makes our customers more profitable, our company stronger and our industry more viable.