manroland AG - Balkan Print Forum in Bucharest

More than 170 participants from eight countries attended the Balkan Print Forum under manroland’s patronage in October 2009 in Bucharest, Romania.

Especially under the influence of the recent economic crisis it appeared most important to exchange information about the development of the printing industry in Europe and Eastern Europe in particular, about the major innovations in the printing industry today, as well as about process management and optimization in printing companies. The Balkan managers and printers are convinced that exchanging knowledge about modern print technology will help them for improving of quality, profitability and competitiveness of their printing companies. Therefore the next meeting of the Balkan printers will take place in Budapest, Hungary, in October 2010.

Representatives of the national printing federations, of the graphic arts schools and universities, and of the trade press of Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia; specialists, experts and managers from the Romanian printing industry; as well as customers, experts and managers from manroland, UPM and Sun Chemical shared know-how and intensified contacts. Thomas Hauser, Vice President Corporate Marketing & Communications manroland, presented his „Perspective Print 2020 – Future Prospects of Printing Industry and Print Media”. He pointed out the challenges of the graphic arts industry today: “It is obvious that the economic crisis leads to a (self-) confidence crisis. Technology and innovation leadership are and remain essential success factors. The importance of networks is rising. Sustainability and efficient utilization of resources will become crucial decision-making criteria.”

Dr. Rossitza Velkova, coordinator of the Balkan Print Forum, expressed the ambition of the member countries to act as an active regional print media community. The participants had the opportunity to visit two Romanian printing houses. The company Elixir Press in Bucharest, founded in 1994, is specialized in entertainment publications, mainly magazines. It is market leader in the field of publishing crosswords. EDS Romania, founded in 2008, is specialized in heatset web offset printing of retail leaflets and mass-market magazines. About a year ago the printing house was equipped with two heatset web offset LITHOMAN printing presses.

manroland AG is the world’s second largest printing systems manufacturer and the world’s market leader in web offset. The group with its production facilities in Offenbach, Augsburg and Plauen employs almost 8,700 people and has annual sales of some Euro 1,7 billion with an export share of 80 percent.

Webfed and sheetfed offset presses provide tailor-made solutions for publishing, commercial, and packaging printing – from brochures to newspapers with circulations running into the millions. A worldwide network of about 100 sales and service centers markets manroland’s products as well as process compliant system components and pressroom products.

Web offset presses for newspapers and high-quality commercial printing of brochures, catalogs, magazines, supplements and books are manufactured in the Augsburg facility (founded 1845). They are designed to meet the continually increasing demands on print quality and performance coming from printing and publishing companies all over the world. manroland’s Plauen facility (founded 1896) is renowned for newspaper presses and paper supply systems. The sheetfed press product range built in Offenbach and Mainhausen (founded 1871) comprises system families in small, medium, large and extra-large formats for commercial printing, posters, books and packaging. Some models are available with the revolutionary direct drive system. manroland offers added value with PRINTVALUE.

manroland offers also designing, planning, building, equipping and commissioning sheetfed and web offset printing plants – from prepress through printing right up to finishing. manroland is a provider of customized 24/7 service and (remote) maintenance packages plus integrated services and training measures (printservices). The portfolio includes a certified range of pressroom products (printcom), software products, and workflow management systems (printnet). The group provides consultancy services covering all aspects of investment and building planning, organization, management, systems engineering and process optimization (printadvice).