Heidelberg’s North American Operations Log Strong Sales Success at drupa

KENNESAW, GA—June 18, 2012—Heidelberg’s North American arms made an especially strong showing across all product categories at drupa 2012, further expanding the company’s majority share of the domestic print media market. Printers’ keen interest in the huge range of efficient, productive solutions offered by Heidelberg gave a clear signal that investment confidence is returning to the North American market. Products accounting for more than 40 percent of orders taken were among the roughly 60 technology innovations launched by Heidelberg at the international trade show.

In total, Heidelberg received orders for more than 30 presses, almost 40 postpress solutions, and 30 prepress, workflow and CtP solutions from printers based in North America.

Said Harald Weimer, president of Heidelberg USA, “drupa 2012 reinforced Heidelberg’s dominance as an industry leader and technology innovator, and showed the North American market to be progressive and dynamic. We hosted more than 600 American commercial, packaging, label and digital printers during the show, an encouraging increase over drupa 2008 attendance.

“In light of the uptick in investment and these outstanding sales results, we will redouble our efforts to help North American printers seize the strongest possible competitive advantage in the markets they serve. We look forward to sharing these innovations with our U.S. customers in the coming months,” Weimer added.

Ken Freek, vp product management, Heidelberg Canada, commented, “It was great to see that drupa remains a strong focus for information gathering, decision making and, of course, ordering for Canadian printers, more than 100 of whom attended the trade show. Many placed orders for new equipment to support the process of retooling for the future. We clearly caught a sense of optimism from many key people in the Canadian printing industry.”

More than 30 presses sold
Standouts in the sheetfed offset category were Heidelberg’s new flagship Speedmaster XL 106 and the new Speedmaster XL 75 Anicolor press, as printers voted with their wallets for these and other solutions designed and manufactured to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and yield maximum profit for their business.

Tom Staib, president of DWS Printing Associates (a label printer company in Deer Park, NY), which signed one of the first orders for the Speedmaster XL 106 in the United States, could well have been speaking for other buyers when he said of his company’s investment decision, “We did not want to catch up with our competitors. We want to be a technology leader.”

The sales of Heidelberg’s digital printing solutions, Linoprint C901 and Linoprint C751, controlled by Heidelberg’s Prinect software, affirmed the market’s confidence in Heidelberg's cross-platform capabilities and expertise.

To summarize drupa, Weimer stated, “drupa has once again demonstrated its importance as a major industry trade show. As for Heidelberg North America, our expectations of the trade show have been more than satisfied. We will now work hard with our customers so that they can profitably bring our drupa innovations to market.”