(Watch David Zwang’s interview with Heidelberg CSO/CTO Dr. David Schmedding here.)

Heidelberg is a name synonymous with printing and offset printing presses since its founding in 1850 as a bell foundry, then evolving into a technology and engineering firm that has had to keep up with the force of constant change. Whether those changes are technological or market-driven, their long term survival is dependent on vision, execution and importantly adaptability.

The quality of Heidelberg’s product was never an issue, beginning with the Tiegel, the first breakthrough press in 1921. From then on, they became the leader in offset presses globally. However, times change and as the market for offset presses slowed down they were having problems addressing the effects. They went through a restructuring in 2008/2009 and again in 2012, but they seemed to continue to be trying to do business as usual, and the bottom was falling out from under them. They can’t be faulted for not seeing the looming threat of digital and hybrid print production in their core markets. However, their initial attempts to compete by entering digital printing through internal developments never really took hold to the point where they could cover costs and meet the rapidly changing market needs. In essence, like most of the other analog and digital printer manufacturers they needed to find a better way forward.