The Spanish printing market is recovering from the crisis years and print shops are investing strongly in modernizing their operations and ensuring they meet market needs. All in all, there are over 3,000 print shops in Spain. Some 80 percent of these are smaller companies who serve their local regions. The remaining 20 percent is made up of large print companies who account for over half of total print production and export to other European countries. There is considerable demand from the packaging and label sectors and for customized presses capable of providing surface finishes for the commercial sector, for example. The print shops receive support from Maquinaria Artes Gràficas Hartmann SLU (Hartmann), the Spanish distributor of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg). Last year, the two companies celebrated 50 years of working together. "Hartmann offers the entire Heidelberg product range. This is at the same time as some manufacturers and competitors have disappeared from the market," explains Wolfgang Roth, responsible at Heidelberg for distributors. Hartmann's team of 67 staff serves half of Spain's print shops and supplies machines for prepress, sheetfed offset, digital printing, and postpress. It also handles Saphira consumables, services, and training. Hartmann's head office is located in Barcelona and the company also has branches in Madrid, Valencia, and sales office in Bilbao and Seville. "Business last year was good again and the current year will be even slightly better," states Roth. "In addition to the demand for print products picking up again, this improvement is also due to the very good personal support that print shops receive from the Hartmann team and the excellent service it offers."