The final tranche of employees to be made redundant by Heidelberg ANZ has reduced the company’s sales and service complement to just over 80 in the region, according to Richard Timson, managing director.
“It’s never pleasing to have to let people go but it’s necessary to rebalance the company to meet market demand,” he said. While declining to put a headcount on the recent round of retrenchments, Timson did flag that as far as he’s concerned the company is at the right size now following years of painful adjustments.
“This was strategically agreed on with our head office in Germany and Asia. It’s essential to size the company to meet the prevailing market conditions,” he said. “And that’s it now for the foreseeable future. We’re in a right position to sustain our market presence.”
Ironically after years of stagnant sales, Heidelberg’s offset market is now showing signs of recovery with at least five offset presses – two large and three half-size – scheduled to go in this year, with perhaps another to come. Timson describes it as “an absolute pick up, when compared to previous years. It’s only the first month and we’ll certainly meet our budgets.”
The local market is going against the overall trend in Asia with third quarter results posted in February by parent company Heidelberger Druckmaschinen revealing a fall in its Asia/Pacific business. The slowdown in growth momentum in China is reflected in falling incoming orders and sales. Asia/Pacific region’s share of sales drops to around 25 percent, said a company statement.
Timson said he's cheered by a continuing number of good orders in ANZ for Heidelberg bindery equipment and CTP as well as three orders in the past few weeks for the company’s Ricoh OEM Versafire digital presses. “That’s been really good for us. They go in and work beautifully. People like it because it comes with the Heidelberg DFE,” he said.
He casts Heidelberg’s situation as symptomatic of the overall industry mood with digital suppliers such as Fuji Xerox and Ricoh discovering signs of market saturation, especially in colour. “You do what you have to do to meet the market. Everyone’s having to adjust,” he said.