(June 05, 2008) Once again, two customers of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) have come out on top at the CIPPI Awards 2008. Metzgerdruck GmbH in Obrigheim, Germany won the "Best cost/benefit realization" category, while first place in the "Best process automation implementation - Asia Pacific" category went to Australian print shop Southern Colour Ltd. Both companies use the Prinect integrated workflow from Heidelberg.
 
Metzgerdruck is a family company focusing on commercial printing. Thanks to process integration with Prinect, it has benefited from a significant increase in productivity. Full integration was achieved in three project phases, starting back in 2005. The return on investment over a five-period period is around 1,300 percent.

Based in the Australian state of Victoria, the Southern Colour print shop is a fast-growing company focusing on the production of high-quality print products in medium to long runs. In a long-term integration project based on the Prinect print shop workflow, Southern Colour automated its prepress operations and created a link to the pressroom. Customers were also given more online connection options. These measures enabled Southern Colour to increase its monthly plate throughput by 250 percent while also cutting staffing levels by 30 percent. Thanks to a big reduction in paper waste and makeready times coupled with enhanced production quality, Southern Colour exceeded even its own targets.
 
Dr. Jürgen Rautert - a member of the Heidelberg Management Board who will also be responsible for sales management at the company from July 1, 2008 - commented on the success of Heidelberg customers at the CIPPI Awards. "Integrated workflow solutions with the Prinect print shop workflow result in considerable economic benefits for users - the results of the CIPPI prize winners demonstrate this very clearly. They also underline that the number of integrated print shops worldwide is increasing all the time," he said.
 
Representatives of the CIP4 organization presented the winners with their awards at drupa 2008.