Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG concluded an eventful 2004 on a serene note last week with a year-end press conference detailing its plans for progress in a global print market that has changed as remarkably as Heidelberg itself.

Bernhard Schreier, chairman of the management board, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, leads a Dec. 8 press conference at Print Media Academy in Heidelberg, Germany.

On Dec. 8 at the company’s Print Media Academy complex in its namesake German city, chairman Bernhard Schreier and other executives shared their vision of Heidelberg’s new place in the world with about 50 journalists from Europe, Asia, and North America. Schreier and his managers had relatively little to say about technology, having beat the drum for Heidelberg products and services at drupa, Graph Expo, and many other events throughout the year. Instead, the briefing focused on what the company hopes to accomplish as an independent, partly foreign-owned business with its sights set and its future staked on one thing: keeping printers convinced that it offers the world’s most desirable sheetfed offset equipment.