Strong and debt-free, manroland tells locals

The local arm of German press manufacturer, manroland, kicks off the party season with dinner for Australian customers. Print21 editor, Simon Enticknap, went along.

The local arm of offset press manufacturer, manroland, welcomed a group of top executives from headquarters in Germany last week and hosted a dinner for customers and staff to mark the company’s renewed presence in the region.

Peter Kuisle, executive vice president sales and chairman of manroland Australasia, addressed the gathering and highlighted the changes to the company’s operations since taking on direct sales channels in South-east Asia and elsewhere.

In particular, Kuisle said the company’s backers, Allianz, were “very committed” to manroland and had recently injected additional resources which meant that, in effect, the company was now debt-free.

Such support, he said, demonstrated the ongoing confidence that the financiers had in the future of offset printing. “We are not a dinosaur or dying industry,” he said.

Pictured: Senior executives from manroland in Germany attending the customer dinner last week, Marco Faulhaber, executive vice president printservices and a member of the board of manroland Australasia (left), and Christian Neilsen, senior legal council.

Managing director of manroland Australasia, Steve Dunwell, also outlined developments with the local company which now numbers 39 staff and is continuing to grow. Next year, he said, the company plans to introduce the manroland brand of consumables, printcom, that has proven to be very successful overseas.

The dinner in Sydney was the first major marketing event for manroland Australasia since starting up as a standalone company in the region. A similar event is planned for Melbourne next week.