At IPEX 2002, Birmingham/UK, MAN Roland announced that their partnership with Xeikon International is continuing. The web-fed color systems will remain to be marketed under their brand names DICOpress and DICOpack, whereas the sheet-fed DICOpage will no longer be sold. MAN Roland is confident about the partnership with Xeikon International and their new owner, Punch International. Punch's entry reconfirms the original direction and overcomes the issues that Xeikon could not tackle independently. With Punch as a new partner, Xeikon gets a second chance: much attention will be paid to R&D, based on a solutions approach, and backed by the large production apparatus of the stable and solvable Punch group. The R&D efforts will be focused on the productivity of the presses: higher uptime, higher lifetime of usage parts, lower cost per page and better print quality stability. The new distribution model for the Xeikon engines is based on a world-wide transparent network of equally treated distribution partners, avoiding channel conflicts. The network consists of former OEM channels, former VADs and former direct sales channels in the Benelux and the USA. The web-fed systems will continue to be marketed under MAN Roland's brand names DICOpress and DICOpack. MAN Roland will further commercialize the DICOpress and DICOpack presses on a non-exclusive basis. MAN Roland has always believed in the digital color printing systems. Together with its outstanding innovative DICOweb digital offset press, MAN Roland offers a complete digital product range. MAN Roland's strategy is to make digital printing profitable to the graphic arts industry, with a focus on integrated solutions covering the whole workflow from pre-press through to post-press.