Heidelberg CEO: IPEX 2010 Continues Positive Trend
KENNESAW, Ga.—“IPEX 2010 was well attended and our customers showed great interest in our new products and services,” said a satisfied Bernhard Schreier, CEO of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg, www.us.heidelberg.com), in summing up the recently concluded trade show. More than 50,000 international visitors came to Birmingham between May 18 and 25 to find out about the numerous innovations being showcased by Heidelberg under the “HEI Performance and HEI Value” banner. “We received numerous orders for equipment and services from all over the world and in all market segments, including around 900 printing units in all formats and over 90 post-press machines. The positive mood in the industry is continuing thanks to the tangible upward trend,” Schreier added. Customers from the UK, Chinese, and Indian markets were particularly interested in investing.
The solutions offered by Heidelberg were geared to customer needs and covered market trends such as lean manufacturing, short-run color printing, green printing, and web-to-print. There were tailor-made solutions to suit each and every customer—from small family businesses to large companies and from industrialized nations to emerging markets. The presentations in the center of the Heidelberg stand put the focus on the company’s services and its Prinect workflow, which make customers even more competitive.
The Speedmaster CX 102, which was making its global debut at IPEX 2010, generated much attention. By the end of the event, 15 of these presses with a total of more than 90 printing units had been sold worldwide. The CX 102 is suitable for both commercial and packaging printers.
“We were able to provide our customers with a credible and touchable demonstration of our state-of-the-art technologies and comprehensive range of services to boost competitiveness,” Schreier confirmed. “We will also introduce a digital printing solution and will then be able to offer the technology with the best price-performance ratio for the particular business model. This is a logical step for our customers because it is understood that offset and digital printing complement each other,” he added.
According to George Clarke, managing director of Heidelberg UK and this year’s IPEX President, IPEX 2010 was a “recovery show” and by far the most important IPEX ever for the industry. “Visitor numbers were just as high as at the last IPEX four years ago and many decision-makers from around the globe attended the event. We have taken orders for 140 printing units in all formats for the UK alone,” says Clarke.