Steve Dunwell looks to manroland’s ‘resurrection drupa’

Relaxed and confident about the future of the local manroland business, Steve Dunwell frames the upcoming trade fair in Düsseldorf as the start of rebuilding customer confidence in the brand.
“Of course there’s been some damage. Everyone had to share some pain, but that’s all behind us now. I’m very pleased with the outcome and there will be press sales to announce in the weeks ahead,” he said.

Undoubtedly, part of the pain came from the forced renegotiation of the two large web press orders for HannanPrint and PMP. Both companies will have had to pay more for their presses following manroland’s slide into administration, although exactly how much is unclear.

“You’ll have to ask them that yourself,” said Dunwell. “Our job now is to recover the confidence of customers in the brand. We have enjoyed great support during the changes. Customers helped us remain viable by paying their accounts ahead of time. It shows they really value the service we provide.”

He predicts sufficient web press orders for the local market in the pipeline for at least the next three years. “I only look that far ahead. You can’t plan anything else,” he said.

manroland Australasia is one of two merchant and service companies in the world, along with India, that remained with the Augsburg-based web press manufacturing part of the company, now owned by L. Possehl & Co. mbh. Dunwell believes the decision to retain the local business is a vote of confidence in its management and staff, a reflection of its ongoing profitability and recognition of the importance of Australia and New Zealand’s web press industry.

The local company now has a complement of 37 and will provides sales and service to both its new owner and to the manroland sheetfed company in Offenbach. According to Dunwell, the sheetfed strategy is to concentrate on providing service and back-up to the company’s 20 sheetfed account customers in ANZ.

“We’re not about to go out trying to compete for new sheetfed press customers. We don’t have the sales capacity. But we will deliver a high level of service to our existing customers,” he said.

He estimates the installed base in the region as around $200 million in mostly large sheetfed presses, more than enough to keep anyone busy. While not every one of them is signed to the company’s PrintCom maintenance and training programme he hopes more will when they realise the benefits.

However, manroland australasia, is primarily focused on the leadership position the brand enjoys in the web press sector in Australia and NZ. Even in the depths of the corporate ‘near death experience’ the local company went ahead with hiring another print demonstrator to keep up with the demand from the almost 40 web press sites and over 100 presses.

“We didn’t let anyone go during the administration but having said that we’ve now reduced the overall size of the company by three. It’s a good outcome considering the numbers that have gone in Germany. Everyone has to share the pain,” he repeated.

Dunwell is particularly pleased with the structure of the new company. He reports directly to Peter Kuisle, vice president and the most senior of the original manroland management remaining. Kuisle was instrumental in setting up the local company and in bringing Dunwell on board.

“We’re not going to try to be all things to all people. We have quite enough to keep ourselves occupied. We have always been a profitable company since I came on board and we will remain so,” he said.

“I see drupa as a ‘resurrection’ for the brand where customers will be able to come and see that we are as solid as ever. I’m very pleased with the outcome. ”