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In a “Digital Sneak Peek,” Heidelberg Offers First Word on New Products and a Promise of a Changed Attitude

In announcing a new and in some ways strikingly different digital strategy, Heidelberg has acknowledged that it can no longer live by sheetfed sales and its own technologies alone.

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Editor's Note:  Don't miss an exclusive interview with Heidelberg CEO Dr. Gerold Linzbach conducted by the author.

What’s a Fujifilm Jet Press 720 from Japan doing in a secure basement R&D room at the world headquarters of Heidelberg Druckmaschinen in Germany? It’s not a case of industrial espionage, but it does offer a clue to the new and in some ways strikingly different digital direction that the German press manufacturer is taking.

Heidelberg, long the world’s biggest producer of sheetfed litho equipment, isn’t straying from its core business. But, at a “digital sneak peek” event for trade media and analysts in Heidelberg, Germany, last week, the company acknowledged that it can no longer live by sheetfed sales and its own technologies alone. Accompanying that declaration were announcements of the most significant digital product developments that Heidelberg has undertaken since its NexPress venture with Kodak 13 years ago.


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About Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry is a journalist and an educator who has covered the graphic communications industry since 1984. The author of many hundreds of articles on business trends and technological developments in graphic communications, he has been published in most of the leading trade media in the field. He also has taught graphic communications as an adjunct lecturer for New York University and New York City College of Technology. The holder of numerous awards for industry service and education, Henry is currently the managing director of Liberty or Death Communications, a content consultancy.

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