Heidelberg will open a €50 million ($71 million) development centre at its Wiesloch-Walldorf site in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, the company announced last week.
Executives including new CEO Rainer Hundsdörfer met with Theresia Bauer, Baden-Württemberg's Minister of Science, Research and the Arts, who said the new state-of-the-art research facility proved that even a large company like Heidelberg could reinvent itself.
“This investment represents a new beacon in Baden-Württemberg’s research landscape. Building a development center of this size and quality proves that Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG bases its decisions on a long-term strategy and makes the future worth looking forward to,” Bauer said.
Heidelberg said the location was chosen because of its surrounding environment and the experts already on site, and would help the company boost its efficiency and research output.
“Combining development, service, and production at a single location close to the customer will make us even faster and more efficient in the future,” said Stephan Plenz, Heidelberg's management board member for Equipment.
Heidelberg did not decrease its research budget in recent years despite difficult economic conditions, and now employs more than 250 software specialists, as well as chemists to develop and produce new environmentally friendly inks.
The company has also developed equipment for digital 4D printing, to print on three-dimensional objects made of materials like plastic, wood and glass.
The new development centre will open at the Wiesloch-Walldorf site, home to about a thousand working places, in 2018.