FERROSTAAL EQUIPMENT SOLUTIONS – A DYNAMIC NEW FORCE

‘Both companies had been trading side by side in Southern Africa for four years. The merger has enabled us to combine our strengths to achieve a streamlined and focused business with improved opportunities for growth,’ Hannes comments.

‘By combining two successful companies, we have every reason to be optimistic about the future,’ he continues. ‘It will bring significant benefits to our customers through a broader product offering, underpinned by a stronger service platform.’

Impressive product line-up

The company now offers an impressive line-up of products from leading overseas suppliers of printing and converting equipment and consumables – including Ferag, Flexotecnica, Fujifilm, Horizon, Krause, Lüscher, MBO, Planatol, Purlux, Recmi Industrie, Reifenhäuser-Kiefel, Ryobi, Sitma, Tampoprint and Wohlenberg – serving a wide range of customers, from newspaper, magazine and commercial printers to packaging printers and converters (see sidebar).

Head office for new company remains at Printing Products headquarters in Bellville, Cape Town, while the Johannesburg offices of both operations are being combined into the Linbro Park premises. ‘In fact,’ comments Hannes, ‘we have doubled the size of our offices in Linbro Park to accommodate the new business.’ The company also has a Durban branch.

‘The combination of the two companies will make a difference in terms of improved cross pollination,’ Hannes maintains. ‘We have a larger sales force with experts in the areas of prepress, digital, press, post-press and packaging – all of whom can provide our customers with informed and up-to-date advice.’

Strong management team

With a staff of some 60 people around the country, Hannes is supported by a strong management team. Key members are Stefan Budricks (financial manager); Eric Duggan (general manager – prepress and digital printing); Glyn Gilbert (general manager – press and post-press; and Johannesburg branch manager); Rex Parsons (general manager – packaging; and Durban branch manager; and David van der Merwe (national service manager).

As 2010 starts on a positive note, Hannes foresees considerable growth in sales of consumables throughout the printing sector. ‘We’re also enjoying an ever-growing share of the prepress market,’ he adds.

‘We also foresee substantial growth in our Ryobi installed base over the coming year. With products such as Fujifilm, Ryobi, Horizon, etc, in our portfolio we are in a position to equip our customers’ lines from start to finish.

‘We are really looking forward to 2010,’ Hannes concludes with a smile.

New name, new logo, and football sponsorship

IN Germany, the name MAN Ferrostaal has been changed to Ferrostaal and no longer incorporates the letters MAN in its logo.

Reasons for changing the name and logo are the acquisition of a 70% stake in the company by the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) of Abu Dhabi and Ferrostaal’s subsequent departure from the MAN Group.

To ensure prominent presentation of the new corporate identity in the public domain, Ferrostaal has become a sponsor of Manchester City football club!

Part of the sponsorship deal, which will run until the end of the 2011/2012 season, involves perimeter advertising that will be visible at every home game in the Premier League and in domestic cup competitions, and at every home game in any international competition for which the team qualifies.

Explains Dr Matthias Mitscherlich, CEO of Ferrostaal, ‘Co-operation with Manchester City is an ideal opportunity to advertise our company internationally. Football is a sport which is very popular in the countries which are important for us.’

A look at Ferrostaal’s key principals

For offset litho printers, Ryobi has established a position among the world’s top manufacturers of high-speed multicolour presses offering productivity and advanced functionality for A3, A2, B2, A1 and B1 paper sizes. In addition, Ryobi develops total printing systems to support the demands of today’s sophisticated information society, responding to a digital workflow throughout every process, from data submission to printing and binding.

For newspaper and magazine printers, Ferag offers inserting, packaging and bundling lines to streamline postpress and mailroom operations.

Also in the postpress field is Wohlenberg, with its comprehensive range of binding equipment and guillotines.

For flexible packaging converters, Reifenhäuser Kiefel Extrusion offers multi-layer blown film lines that include smooth bore extruders and various Kirion modules to allow for different configurations. With die head diameters of 150 to 600mm, the diversity in materials and film structures that can be processed are almost unlimited.

Also serving flexible packaging converters, Flexotecnica specialises in the manufacture of reel-to-reel flexo printing presses from 600mm to 3,2m wide, with either central impression drum or independent impression rollers. Equipped from one to 12 printing stations these presses suit all flexible packaging materials. Besides flexo presses, Flexotecnica also offers combination lines for processes such as coating of special glues on gravure downstream units or solvent-based or solventless laminators as well as platen/rotary die-cutters for the production of folding cartons.

For computer-to-plate systems, platemaking, colour management, proofing systems and workflow solutions, Fujifilm is a trusted name in the graphic arts industry. In addition, FujifilmSericol offers leading-edge technology in UV inks and is making impressive headway among South Africa’s flexographic label printers.

Also for label printers, Swiss company Lüscher offers leading-edge platemaking systems. For instance, at Labelexpo, the company launched its XPose! 4FLEX that’s able to image printing forms for four different printing technologies: letterpress, flexo, screen and offset printing.