Apart from social events – including a gala dinner – and a visit to sheetfed printed Vistaprint in Derrimut – the event introduced the ‘new’ manroland companies, the Australian government’s Clean Technology Investment Programme, and the products of two new agencies.

Vistaprint, a global company which is a leader in lean technology, opened their doors to show their manroland R705 DirectDrive sheetfed press in production. The company has some of the fastest turnaround times in the industry with complete job changeover, including plates, paper and wash-up in under two minutes.

In the business sessions manroland Australasia managing director Steve Dunwell updated on the web systems and sheetfed entities which officially commenced business on February 1. “The purchasers, Possehl and Langley paid cash for the businesses, and as a result both have zero debt and commenced operation with the correct cost base for today’s business,” he says.

Guests also learned about the strategic partnership with Océ, for which manroland is designing and integrating high-speed industrial book and newspaper folders with digital inkjet presses.

New partner Elettra manufactures integrated automatic washing systems, including systems for commercial web and Newswash for newspapers, an idle roller drive device for newspaper, and cloth rewinders. Eltex Electrostatic develops electrostatic, remoistening and ribbon tacking systems to improve product quality and profitability throughout printing and finishing processes.

More than 20 companies from Australia and New Zealand were represented at the customer event, which continues to grow, and offers users a forum for industry updates, market trends and technological developments.