"digi:media was the perfect way to launch our global cooperation with Ricoh," says Bernhard Schreier, CEO of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg). "Under the motto HEI Flexibility, we gave visitors hands-on examples of how to use the new combination of offset and digital printing from Heidelberg. In addition to numerous sales made across our entire range of products and services, I am particularly delighted that the German client Stünings has become the first customer to purchase the new Ricoh Pro C901 Graphic Arts Edition from Heidelberg," he continues. Stefan Willms, Technical Manager at Stünings Medien GmbH in Krefeld, adds: "We were very interested when Heidelberg announced it was moving into digital printing and postponed our purchasing decision until a solution was available from Heidelberg. Our corporate philosophy is based on an integrative approach that has many parallels to the Heidelberg portfolio. With the new Ricoh Pro C901 Graphic Arts Edition, we are now able to create high-quality short runs and personalized mailings, flyers, and catalogs to meet our customers' needs. The future support of Heidelberg Systemservice is important to us, and the link between the Ricoh press's workflow and the Prinect workflow from Heidelberg also helped us reach our decision."

Worldwide rollout of cooperation with Ricoh gets underway

Heidelberg announced the launch of its global sales partnership with Ricoh to the international press on the eve of digi:media, which took place in Düsseldorf from April 7 to 9, 2011. At the beginning of April 2011, Heidelberg sales organizations in Germany and the United Kingdom rounded off their portfolios with a digital printing solution - the Ricoh Pro C901 Graphic Arts Edition. The sales organizations in France and Switzerland will follow soon. Heidelberg will start selling the Ricoh Pro C901 Graphic Arts Edition in other regions to coincide with international trade shows there, such as Graph Expo in the U.S. and IGAS in Japan. The final step, the global market launch in Eastern Europe, is scheduled to take place at drupa 2012.

Heidelberg demonstrates the possibilities of integrated print production

The combination of offset and digital printing now available from Heidelberg, enables print shops to respond flexibly to customer requirements by offering profitable variable data printing and shorter runs in addition to cost-efficient, high-quality offset printing. As well as solutions for traditional commercial printing, Heidelberg also offers the Linoprint Driveline B, an industrial inkjet press for manufacturers of branded goods who, for example, wish to produce or personalize packaging in-house. Numerous live demonstrations of hybrid print production combining offset and digital print technology in a single print product enabled visitors to the Heidelberg stand at digi:media to see how even short print runs can be produced for specific target groups while also ensuring cost-efficiency.

Heidelberg presented a complete portfolio of solutions - from the Web-to-Print frontend and use of digital and offset print technologies to professional postpress applications for mailings and books. It was the only exhibitor at digi:media to showcase solutions combining offset and digital printing in practical applications - solutions that have been available to customers since the beginning of April 2011.