“Our production line in Germany is running at full capacity at least till next March.” That’s the positive declaration of Rafael Penuela, chief executive officer of Manroland Sheetfed, as he thanked customers worldwide for their support, as evidenced by the strong interest in the company’s high-performance presses. “Our factory has been very busy with fulfilling the orders,” says Penuela. According to him, the sales performance of the company has been on track despite the various new challenges facing the global printing market.
Founded in 1871, the German Manroland group produced both web offset and sheetfed offset presses until it became insolvent in November 2011. In February 2012, the sheetfed division (known as Manroland Sheetfed), which is still based in Offenbach near Frankfurt, was purchased by the privately owned UK engineering group Langley Holdings.
Essentially scaled down to produce perhaps 200 well-configured multicolor presses a year, the company has been run profitably since the acquisition by Langley. At a time when the entire offset press industry is reeling under the weight of over-capacity, it seems that Manroland Sheetfed’s strategy of limiting its capacity is paying off.
Manroland Sheetfed currently has its own subsidiaries in over 40 countries including India, where its head office is located in New Delhi. The Indian operation has been able to provide engineering services to the Manroland Sheetfed installed base and sell new presses primarily to the monocarton industry.
According to Penuela, Manroland Sheetfed’s Offenbach headquarters are working hard to provide its global marketing and service organizations with the very latest materials in technology, product delivery and services. “Manroland Sheetfed subsidiaries, together with our headquarters, are working hard together to reach more deals and be of better service to our customers,” he says. “We roll up our sleeves and approach our customers to see how best we can help them. . . . We also offer our highly competitive printing solutions to help them achieve sustainable profitability. Our efforts have been paying off.”
Penuela has always maintained that by adhering to “Customer First” approach and all the core values that have stood the company well through the years, Manroland Sheetfed would ride out any storms and remain ahead in the printing machine manufacturing industry.
