Venlo, The Netherlands - Océ, the world's leading manufacturer of high-performance printing systems for digital continuous feed printing, and manroland AG, one of the world's leading suppliers of offset printing systems, will from 2011 on offer the market total digital printing solutions aimed at the graphic arts industry - all of these being optimal solutions from a single source. The companies will supply solutions that cover all of the manufacturing steps within the graphic arts industry by combining print data management and digital and offset printing as well as postprocessing.

Main advantages for printers

As the No. 1 in digital full-color continuous feed printing, Océ possesses decades of experience in the fields of system integration, workflow management and variable high-performance data printing. In its turn, as one of the world's leading suppliers of offset printing systems, manroland has profound expertise in the development and manufacturing of high-productivity offset technologies as well as in the associated postprocessing and finishing systems. The main beneficiaries of the cooperation will be printing operations who are selecting future-oriented technology and workflow solutions to be employed within their company after being jointly advised by manroland and Océ.

Inkjet production supplements offset printing

Inkjet production systems are increasingly being used as a supplement to offset printing for small runs and just-in-time production. Here they offer a cost advantages, and permit, in conjunction with appropriate postprocessing, fast throughput times. Areas of application include books, advertising inserts, catalogs and brochures.

"As the market leader in digital continuous feed printing, Océ has for many years been successful across the globe in company-related high-speed transaction printing," said Rokus van Iperen, Chairman of the Corporate Executive Board of Océ. "This strategic alliance with manroland offers us the ideal opportunity to firmly establish Océ inkjet technology in the graphic arts industry. This is a big step, especially for our Continuous Feed Printing Division located in Poing/Munich."

"Digital printing already has a market share that cannot be underestimated. This is the first concrete step in opening up new growth opportunities for manroland and in securing a lucrative field of business for the long term," said Gerd Finkbeiner, CEO of manroland.