In the run up to drupa so far all the messages we are hearing concern digital printing and in particular high-speed continuous feed color printing. One could almost image that other forms of printing have ceased to exist. Well surprise, surprise offset is still here and appears to be thriving. Heidelberg recently invited the world’s graphic arts press to Germany to visit their huge factory facility in Wiesloch to see the Heidelberg view of the future of offset printing.

The major item of news from Heidelberg would not come as a surprise to anyone since the company announced its plans to move into larger format offset presses at the time of the last drupa. The new presses in this area are the Speedmaster XL145 and XL162. (The numerics indicate the sheet size in centimeters so the XL145 is 57 inches and XL162 is nearly 64 inches). These presses are for Format 6 and 7b sizes. To build these presses Heidelberg has needed to create a total new production facility and the pre-drupa press event was held in this Hall 11at Wiesloch. To show the level of investment Heidelberg has put into moving into the larger format presses, the hall alone cost Euro 42 million. To say this new press hall is large is an understatement being more than 200 yards in length and over 100 yards in width.

The presentations at this press event did not however just concentrate on new equipment. Bernhard Schreier, Heidelberg’s Chairman and CEO emphasized the theme of the company’s approach at drupa as being the drupa of business and value creation showing how increasing value can be created through business for a customer. Schreier emphasized Heidelberg’s position in providing solutions other than hardware and software, and stated they would be concentrating on more services to be delivered by Heidelberg staff worldwide. The company intends to be getting at least 25% of its revenues for outside services within three years. Schreier also commented on the substantial drop in the company’s share price that has come down from €40 in July 2007 to €16 in March 2008. He stated that this was not a reflection of the company’s performance making the following comments. The US is very hesitant in investing at present with a 30% drop of orders in Q4 2007, but Germany was going through a record period of sales with significant sales of the Speedmaster XL105 presses. France and the UK also had excellent growth as well as Eastern Europe where there was a 14-15% growth in order intake in 2007.