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Brits on front foot, shock

"British company buys German engineering business". Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine we'd be writing a variant on that headline. That it's a British company without any obvious connections to our industry, and they are investing in a manufacturer of printing presses, makes for...

Posted to Printer’s Devil – it’s in the detail (Weblog) by Jo Francis on 02-03-2012
Mists begin to clear at Manroland

New month, and a new era begins for what was Manroland. Administrator Werner Schneider met his deadline in having some sort of solution in place by the end of January. Well, at least a formative one. The Augsburg web offset business, which always looked like the most saleable part of the group based...

Posted to Printer’s Devil – it’s in the detail (Weblog) by Jo Francis on 02-01-2012
Big week for the future shape of press manufacturing

What a week this is shaping up to be in press manufacturer land. Yesterday Heidelberg, which is of course the world's biggest company of this ilk, announced that it would be cutting a further 2,000 jobs, almost 13% of its workforce, as part of a new efficiency programme aimed at restoring an acceptable...

Posted to Printer’s Devil – it’s in the detail (Weblog) by Jo Francis on 01-18-2012
Manroland machinations

Speculation surrounding what will happen next at Manroland is throwing up some mind-boggling prospects. I read one report that mooted a solution involving a mega-merger between Manroland, Heidelberg and KBA to make some sort of ultimate behemoth in German printing equipment manufacturing. Can you even...

Posted to Printer’s Devil – it’s in the detail (Weblog) by Jo Francis on 12-12-2011
Perfect storm capsizes Manroland

It is surely inconceivable that Manroland will not continue in some form. Surely??? That said, up until Friday it seemed inconceivable that this bastion of the German equipment engineering industry with a history stretching back more than 160 years would be allowed to fall into insolvency. It just shows...

Posted to Printer’s Devil – it’s in the detail (Weblog) by Jo Francis on 11-28-2011
Digital alliances the hot topic of the day

Well, there's interesting. Here we are wondering when there will be some sort of announcement from Heidelberg about its plans to return to the digital market, and up pops Manroland with a deal to do the very same thing with Océ . Shall be watching closely to see how this pans out. A decade or so...

Posted to Printer’s Devil – it’s in the detail (Weblog) by Jo Francis on 12-02-2010
Heidelman Rolandberg? The mind boggles

Fresh reports about the much-rumoured marriage of convenience between Heidelberg and manroland make it sound as if this potential coming together has now moved well beyond any initial fluttering of eyelashes to a more concrete proposal stage. Heidelberg's share price has been edging upwards over...

Posted to Printer’s Devil – it’s in the detail (Weblog) by Jo Francis on 08-24-2009
Press manufacturers providing good copy of their own

KBA's new president and CEO Helge Hansen certainly isn't backward in coming forward with some forthright opinions. The sideswipes at Heidelberg came thick and fast in his commentary at KBA's AGM last week. That both KBA and Manroland have now publicly stated they will not be applying for...

Posted to Printer’s Devil – it’s in the detail (Weblog) by Jo Francis on 06-22-2009
Counting the cost of being bailed out

So, bar a few crossing of Ts and dotting of Is, Heidelberg has managed to secure the necessary funding that will secure its future. Phew. Imagine the meltdown that would have ensued had Heidelberg gone bust? It doesn't even bear thinking about. This bail-out comes at a heavy price, though, as chief...

Posted to Printer’s Devil – it’s in the detail (Weblog) by Jo Francis on 06-09-2009
Hard to see how Heidelberg can afford job security in Germany

I know we're living in crazy times, but have you seen Heidelberg's share price ? It's down at €6.69 as I type, and has recently descended to a new ten-year low of €6.64. A year ago the stock was at €29, and just two years ago the company spent the best part of €140m on a share buyback at...

Posted to Printer’s Devil – it’s in the detail (Weblog) by Jo Francis on 10-28-2008

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