Heidelberg global high misses ANZ

Heidelberg’s first quarter figures for 2010-11 financial year saw an upsurge in orders around the globe, but Australia and New Zealand proved the exception to the trend. Andy Vels Jensen, managing director of Heidelberg ANZ talks to Print21 about how the local market is weathering the storm.

At last some good news for German press manufacturer, Heidelberg which, last week reported its highest level of orders in 18 months. At a time when everyone in the industry is waiting to find out when things are going to get better, this could have been just the news they were looking for.

Locals, however, should not get too excited as this uplift has not reached Australia or New Zealand. Andy Vels Jensen (pictured) told Print21 that the news confirms the old saying that Australia and New Zealand are indeed a long way from the rest of the world.

“The ANZ market continues to struggle – in particular New Zealand,” he said. “This is pretty amazing in Australia given that the strong AUD, the economy not being as hard hit as other western countries and in fact expanding, banks reporting record results, unemployment being half of the likes of UK and Germany, and all economic data being fairly positive, except perhaps for a rather high interest rate.”

He believes that there are plenty of good reasons for companies to invest, but notes that few are actually taking the steps to do so. “What is different in our market is of course the fact that interest rates are indeed high and banks have a distaste for funding the industry. This is further frustrated by the recent increase in print companies falling over and generating losses with the companies and individuals who fund it. Young, second-hand equipment enters the market, cheaply, and creates pressure on not only the equipment vendors, but also the printers themselves and the companies funding equipment, as asset values are suddenly under pressure and may even need to revalued,” he said.

“Another difference would be the amount of consolidation this market has experienced and the make-up of the market and the players.”

Not even Jensen claims to possess the psychic powers of predicting when the market will pick up. “24 months ago, my gut told me around IPEX 2010 [we would see improvements],” he said.

“However, that is now behind us and although we have the highest number of prospects we have had in two-plus years, trading remains difficult. It could be coming back, slowly but surely, and everyone is simply very cautious, not wanting to over-extend themselves, having just been through a horror two years which dished up some nasty surprises and reductions in business,” he said.

Going forward, Jensen said that Heidelberg will not rely on selling equipment as much as it did eight years ago, citing the recent deals with Kodak and Konica Minolta as proof of how the company has changed.

“We have had to continue making changes and improving even more over the past six-to-nine months and will have to keep doing so unless business improves before the end of the calendar year,” he said.

“Heidelberg has been active in the ANZ market for 85 years now and the business has changed a lot over the years. We just have to change with it if we want to remain in the same spot.”