Westmont, Illinois — MAN Roland registered sales in all of its major product areas at Print 01, including web, sheetfed and digital. Of equal importance was the more than 2,000 qualified sales leads the company amassed during the show. "Most of these are prospects with high interest in upgrading the technology in their facilities," said Yves Rogivue, CEO of the company’s North American division. "Now it’s our job to show them on an individual basis how our advancements can make their businesses more profitable. That activity should develop a continuing sales flow for MAN Roland into 2002 and beyond." Following are a sampling of the major systems sales made at Print 01: - A six-color Roland 900 with a coater and a new integrated slitter was sold to St. Joseph Packaging Inc. of St. Joseph, Missouri. The 56-inch press was used for demonstrations at the show and is now being delivered to the stock box and custom packaging producer. - An eight-color 40-inch Roland 708 with perfecting and coater was purchased by General Press Corporation in Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania, located outside of Pittsburgh. The high quality sheetfed printer already has two earlier generation 40-inch presses from MAN Roland as well as a 29-inch Roland 300. - A six-color Roland 706 with perfecting and coater will be installed at AJ Images in Roselle, New Jersey. It is the company’s second six-color 706. The first, a model without perfecting, was installed just 18 months earlier at AJ Images, which was recently recognized as one of top fifty fastest growing printers in the United States. - The first five-color Roland 205 — a new configuration of MAN Roland’s 29-inch model — was acquired by Wall Printing Co. in High Point, North Carolina. The company specializes in the production of tags, labels, packaging, and point of purchase materials. - A Roland 306 with perfecting and coating, the company’s automated 29-inch press with the six-up sheet format, was purchased by a printer whose name will be announced when the system is installed. - A DICOpress — MAN Roland’s on-demand color system — will be working at Bentley Graphic Communications in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. That facility is already home to a six-color 29-inch MAN Roland 306 and a five-color 40-inch MAN Roland 705. Other developments introduced at Print 01 were the subject of a news conference that MAN Roland conducted in its exhibit to give reporters, editors and publishers a first-hand look at the innovations being launched. These included the North American introduction of a lithographic press that prints without plates, a partnering agreement that supercharges PECOM, and a new portal for printers to enter the lucrative world of short-run color printing. Themed "Advanced Access," the event featured corporate briefings by Gerd Finkbeiner, chief executive of MAN Roland, and Yves Rogivue. A "Printer’s Perspective" was provided by James Bentley, founder and president of Bentley Graphic Communications in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. In his presentation, Gerd Finkbeiner declared that "printing is not an old economy, in our view, but a real economy." With that in mind he pointed to the need to "project a more positive image for our industry." "We need to get back to our roots in this industry — to help people make money being a printer," Finkbeiner added. Yves Rogivue announced several advancements designed to do just that and provided an overview of the company’s 40,000 sq ft exhibit: - DICOweb made its North American debut at Print. A two-color, coldset version of the press demonstrated a different configuration of the plateless concept. Since its introduction at Drupa, DICOweb has received several honors, including a 2001 InterTech Technology Award from the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation. - MAN Roland has entered into a technology and marketing alliance with printCafe. The result: users of its PECOM press control and organization system will be able to add automated management and accounting functions to their agendas, using printCafe’s MIS solutions, starting with Logic. - A partnership has also been forged with Oce Printing Systems USA to equip American printers with MAN Roland’s DICO line of toner-based digital color printing systems — DICOpress, DICOpack and DICOpage. Under the agreement, Oce will support DICO-equipped facilities throughout the U.S., starting with installation and training, then continuing with service and 24/7 technical assistance. - Print was also the scene of the worldwide launch of a five-color configuration of our affordable 29-inch press — the Roland 200. The 200 is the press for printers looking to move up to four-up, four-color and five-color printing, for in-plants, and for any facility looking to add extra production firepower to its pressroom. - The world premiere of a new Roland 900 configuration took place at Print. A new sheet slitter has been integrated into the delivery of a 56-inch version of the press that literally doubles the eight-up productivity of the 900. Running at an operating speed of 13,000 impressions per hour, the slitter-equipped press can produce 26,000 eight-up sheets per hour. Jamie Bentley’s presentation focused on how PECOM helps him manage his company and its two MAN Roland presses. "By taking care of all the little details offline, PECOM has a big impact on our bottom line," he said. "We can typically knock out two to three extra jobs a day by using PECOM instead of manually tweaking the presses. That’s a significant savings when you’re running two shifts, for a total of 18 hours a day."