Steve Dunwell steps up as manroland MD

There’s been a warm response from the local industry to the appointment of Steve Dunwell as the first MD of manroland Australia. Print 21 editor, Simon Enticknap, spoke to him about what he has planned in his new role.

The popular NSW manager for the Curries Group said he had been pleasantly surprised by the number of congratulatory calls and emails from people in the industry following the announcement last week of his appointment as managing director of the standalone manroland company encompassing Australia and New Zealand.

The move to set up a separate manroland company in the region follows the recent ending of the long-time agency agreement with MAN Ferrostaal (previously Intergrafica Print & Pack). In response, the German offset press giant has set up its own direct sales and support organisation in Australia headed up by Dunwell. Head office will be in Regents Park, Sydney, with another office and warehouse in Melbourne, employing about 40 staff in total.
Speaking just prior to heading over to Germany for briefings at the manroland head offices, Dunwell said his first priority as MD would be to ensure that the local service operation is up to scratch.

“From what I’ve seen at the moment, it is,” he commented. “We’ve got a good infrastructure in place and a lot of technical personnel on board already. There will be new roles to add and expand, particularly on the sheetfed side of service, but the web side seems to be running well.”

When he starts in his new role at the beginning of August, Dunwell says he will be talking to manroland customers in Australia and New Zealand to find out how the company can serve them better and what areas need to be improved upon.

“If your existing customers are happy, you’re going to sell more products to them and that will lead to more products being sold to new customers,” he said.

Sales and marketing in the sheetfed sector will be a key focus for the new company, a market in which it already has a number of major clients, particularly in packaging, but where it has faced stiff competition in recent years from rival offset press suppliers.

“It’s a really exciting challenge. We do see growth opportunities back in the sheetfed market but it is a challenge because the commercial sheetfed market, particularly at the lower end, is so tight.”

Prior to joining Curries, Dunwell was perhaps best known in the industry as the force behind former prepress vendor MediaTech, for many years the local agent for Scitex prepress systems and a pioneer in the introduction of CTP technology via Creo. Whilst at Curries, he also played a key role in helping to drive that company’s push into digital print with the HP Indigo systems.
But while digital systems have played a prominent role in his career to date, Dunwell says he is equally at home in the offset world. In fact, one of his earliest involvements with the local industry was with the renowned Harris web presses for the newspaper and commercial web market, a connection which he has maintained to this day.

“I’ve had a lot of dealings with manroland’s customer base in the web sector over many years,” he said, adding that he was looking to forward to being more closely involved in the newspaper market again.

He also expects the new manroland to play a significant role in the local industry, including supporting industry associations and being involved at a grassroots level. It is an approach he has pursued in his time at Curries, a company well-known for its ties to the local industry at all levels, and one which has proven to be immensely successful.

Dunwell said his time in charge of the NSW operations for Curries had been “a great six years” and he was pleased to be leaving on good terms and with $6 million worth of forward orders.

“They understood though that the chance to be the managing director of manroland Australia is something which, for me personally, is a fantastic opportunity and one where I feel I can do well,” he concluded. “I’m sorry to be leaving Curries but very excited to be going to manroland.”