HEIDELBERG TARGETS €300M SALES GROWTH

Celebrating 175 years in business this year, the world’s biggest offset press manufacturer Heidelberg says it is primed for a €300m growth in sales from its strategic initiatives within three years.

Sales at Heidelberg in the current financial year are forecast to remain at the previous year's level of €2.4bn. Some  85 per cent of its business is conducted outside of Germany, with Australia and New Zealand both achieving significant growth in the last financial year, as printers replace presses. 

CEO Jurgen Otto says the company will drive growth in its presses business, including digital printing, and will also leverage its skills and growing knowledge bank into new non-related areas. Otto said, "We will continue to expand our offering in the growing green technologies market. This includes key areas such as high-precision mechanical engineering, the automotive industry, charging infrastructure and software, and new hydrogen technologies."

Heidelberg’s packaging market has seen significant growth over the past ten years, it has grown by more than 60 per cent worldwide, and now more than half its press sales are for packaging printing, an area it will continue to focus on.

In addition, it will continue its drive into industrial digital printing. Heidelberg says the market size will grow by 50 per cent over the next four years. It says its new partnership with Canon inkjet printers is already achieving sales. The first Jetfire 50 will go into a Swiss printer in March, as part of a deal that also includes a new Speedmaster XL106 eight-colour perfector, all on an integrated Prinect digital workflow.

As part of its growth initiative Heidelberg will also seek to leverage its extensive international sales and distribution network, which sees it operating in 170 countries.

There will also be a focus on expanding industrial business in the technology segment, particularly in the fields of high-precision mechanical engineering, the automotive industry, electromobility and hydrogen. The company is also increasingly offering its expertise and installed capacities to other companies in order to efficiently industrialise or manufacture their products.

Initially established on 11 March in 1850, Heidelberg has presses in almost every country in the world. It says it has a growth potential of more than