Heidelberg has a Messi problem. Just as Barcelona had to sell the world’s best footballer to restore balance in a club where a single player had come to dominate the wage bill and distort how the club was run, so Heidelberg has the dominance of the B1 sheetfed litho press to contend with. Heidelberg is without question the world’s largest producer of this type of machine, the most popular format for carton printing, for publication printing and for all manner of commercial print work. Even in the key Chinese market, which is the only one currently expanding, Heidelberg has more than 50% of the market. It is without question a great problem to have. But just as with Lionel Messi at Barcelona, the success of the B1 Speedmaster is having a distorting effect. Barcelona in the end has sold its star problem. Heidelberg cannot do that.
It is Heidelberg’s secure money earner, generating the sort of revenues that allowed the company to invest in a B1 inkjet press, larger format litho presses as well as plenty of other projects that have failed to realise their potential and grow to replace the core product of the business. In part there is a temptation to make any new press into new Speedmaster, because Heidelberg’s success is built on the success of the litho machine in the analogue world, anything in digital must be judged against it, resulting in an over complex, overly expensive inkjet machine. And like Barcelona FC, Heidelberg has had a succession of managers trying to tackle the problem.
Twenty years ago, Hartmut Mehdorn tried to take Heidelberg in all sorts of directions: heatset web offset, newspapers, digital printing. He failed just as Gerold Linzbach more recently failed. Reiner Hundsdörfer, the now outgoing CEO, has urged the importance of subscriptions and software as a way to dilute the dependency on B1 press sales. That is tinkering with the problem. Its success has also been built on being able to offer the next machine for a commercial print customer, from GTO to S-Offset, from MO to Speedmaster and SM102 to XL106. Now when dyed in the wool Heidelberg customers ponder the wisdom of making their next press the latest incarnation or configuration of the XL106, with an incremental improvement in performance, or whether they should head in a more digital print direction, Heidelberg has nothing to address the need. The incoming CEO has delivered recurring revenues (read subscriptions) and a digital eco system in his previous job. That will help. Something new is needed because the B1 pony is doing an awful lot of work.
Heidelberg and a footballing conundrum
Heidelberg has a Messi problem. Just as Barcelona had to sell the world’s best footballer to restore balance in a club where a single player had come to dominate the wage bill and distort how the club was run, so Heidelberg has the dominance of the B1 sheetfed litho press to contend with. Heidelberg is without question the world’s largest producer of this type of machine, the most popular format for carton printing, for publication printing and for all manner of commercial print work. Even in the key Chinese market, which is the only one currently expanding, Heidelberg has more than 50% of the market. It is without question a great problem to have. But just as with Lionel Messi at Barcelona, the success of the B1 Speedmaster is having a distorting effect. Barcelona in the end has sold its star problem. Heidelberg cannot do that.
It is Heidelberg’s secure money earner, generating the sort of revenues that allowed the company to invest in a B1 inkjet press, larger format litho presses as well as plenty of other projects that have failed to realise their potential and grow to replace the core product of the business. In part there is a temptation to make any new press into new Speedmaster, because Heidelberg’s success is built on the success of the litho machine in the analogue world, anything in digital must be judged against it, resulting in an over complex, overly expensive inkjet machine. And like Barcelona FC, Heidelberg has had a succession of managers trying to tackle the problem.
Twenty years ago, Hartmut Mehdorn tried to take Heidelberg in all sorts of directions: heatset web offset, newspapers, digital printing. He failed just as Gerold Linzbach more recently failed. Reiner Hundsdörfer, the now outgoing CEO, has urged the importance of subscriptions and software as a way to dilute the dependency on B1 press sales. That is tinkering with the problem. Its success has also been built on being able to offer the next machine for a commercial print customer, from GTO to S-Offset, from MO to Speedmaster and SM102 to XL106. Now when dyed in the wool Heidelberg customers ponder the wisdom of making their next press the latest incarnation or configuration of the XL106, with an incremental improvement in performance, or whether they should head in a more digital print direction, Heidelberg has nothing to address the need. The incoming CEO has delivered recurring revenues (read subscriptions) and a digital eco system in his previous job. That will help. Something new is needed because the B1 pony is doing an awful lot of work.
Gareth Ward
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