MANROLAND OWNER SAYS FUTURE POSITIVE

Tony Langley, chairman of manroland Sheetfed owner Langley Holdings, says the long-term fundamentals of the commercial print industry are “positive”.

On publication of Langley’s half yearly figures, he said he does not expect a major contribution from the Print Technologies Division – where manroland Sheetfed is the major component – in the immediate future, but says the Group remains committed to the sector.

He said that Langley Holdings was injecting a further 24 months’ worth of funding to manroland.

Langley said that the first half saw customer confidence to invest in manroland Sheetfed “subdued”, but said the figures did record a profit, albeit “nominal”.

Commenting on manroland’s two principal competitors that have both seen their share price more than halve from two years ago, he said “all the ships are floating equally with the tide”.

During the first six months almost 15 per cent of the 1000 strong workforce were let go, mostly through voluntary redundancy, and mostly back office staff.

Langley justified skipping drupa, citing the multimillion euro cost of attending, and said the alternate plan for manroland Sheetfed of inviting printers to the manufacturing plant instead during drupa had paid off, with 1000 print business owners availing themselves of the opportunity to go to Offenbach.

Langley acquired the sheetfed part of manroland when it went into administration over Christmas 2011, with the Augsburg-centred web side of the business bought by Possehl, a German industrial group. In ANZ the Possehl business, which has since acquired major rival Goss, and is now named manrolandGoss, represents manroland Sheetfed, with Dennis Wickham as managing director.