$200 plus million and record results for Heidelberg ANZ

A strong surge of investments in Australia and New Zealand has changed Andy Vels Jensen's predictions for the current year. Revising a rather pessimistic outlook after a record year of investment in presses and finishing equipment, HAN's CEO is now more optimistic than when interviewed 6+ months ago, predicting good sales leading in to drupa 2008. Bad debt ended the year at its lowest level ever, as did used equipment stock value.

Releasing details of the company's $200 million revenue in the year to April 1, he indicated that the $ 110 million of new sheetfed presses installed continued to drive the industry's modernisation, complemented by another $28 million in late model used presses. In contrast, more than 160 printing units were taken in trade and exported overseas.

The company's continuing advance into postpress equipment, mainly folders but also stitchers and cutters, won for it the highest market share in the sector throughout the Asian Pacific region. "We have the highest ratio of any Heidelberg country when it comes to fully automated folders measured in percent of total folder sales, which again confirms that ANZ printers are technology leaders on a world wide scale".

In a further indication of the change of revenue mix for the industry's largest supplier, income from consumables, parts and service now cover 40 per cent of the company's total overheads, up from 20 per cent six years ago when Vels Jensen first arrived. With a commanding market share in most sectors, he attributes much of the company's success to recognising and changing to meet the market's requirements as well as providing a strong sustainable support structure that last year celebrated 80 years in Australia.

In addition to being the first to deliver long perfecting presses when printers were looking to dramatically increase productivity, the company was able to anticipate the consolidation that is currently re-shaping much of the industry. "We saw it coming," he said. "One could smell it, feel it, three to four years ago. We moved to split the sales and service organization into two parts and developed the consultancy approach for the larger clients and groups. We also developed a range of new business support tools for our A3 clients which helped them as much as it assisted the big end of town."

The results can be witnessed in the almost complete alignment of the large printing groups, such as GEON and Blue Star with Heidelberg. A prime example is the newly announced GEON print centre in Auckland, and the Craftsman Press greenfield site in Melbourne. Commenting on the company's industry-leading personnel complement of 175 within customer service, Vels Jensen said the Blue Star Clayton operation required in excess of 5,000 man hours, involving more than 40 different people from within the organization so as to achieve "the perfect move".

The latest development in HAN is "systemservice24plus" which is a service package that far exceeds the industry standard in the market place and delivers a set of 9 innovative services for a period of 24 months. "In other words, sheetfed presses are now fully covered for 24 months, rather than 12 months, allowing our customers to run their equipment with optimized service conditions and maximum cost benefit." The official launch of "systemservice24plus" will take place at Printex in Sydney.

Success on a global scale


The local company's success is a mirror image of the operations of the global company, which reports sales up six per cent to AUD$6.1 billion and a profit of $559 million. "For the fourth year in succession, we have been able to draw on the upswing in the global economy and the resultant upward trend in our industry," said Bernhard Schreier, CEO.

Upcoming orders $6.2 billion were up seven per cent on the previous year.

Got a view on this story? Drop us a line and let us know