(Información remitida por la empresa firmante) PART 2
On March 11 (News Aktuell):
Milestones in the history of HEIDELBERG
• 1850: The Hemmer, Hamm & Co. bell foundry and machine shop opens in Frankenthal on March 11, laying the foundations for the company now called Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.
• 1921: The first Heidelberger Tiegel is built. From 1926 onward, this automatic letterpress platen press was produced on an assembly line.
By 1985, the company had manufactured over 160,000 of these presses.
• 1926: Hubert H.A. Sternberg is appointed to the board of Schnellpressen-fabrik Heidelberg AG, as the company is known at the time. He remained a board member until 1972 and really made his mark on HEIDELBERG. Sternberg modernized production and marketing operations and ensured the company’s growth. In 1949, he organized the first German export exhibition in the USA after the Second World War. In 1951, he then helped initiate drupa, the sector’s leading global trade show to this day.
• 1930: The demonstration vehicles set off. One of Sternberg’s marketing ideas was to demonstrate HEIDELBERG presses to potential customers at their premises. This involved assembling them on trucks or installing them in buses and sending them to target markets around the world, accompanied by engineers. Advertising campaigns and installment-based payment plans also contributed to the success of the company’s marketing.
• 1951: drupa proves a big hit with the public. The International Printing and Paper Exhibition, now known as drupa, attracted 300,000 visitors in its first year. HEIDELBERG presented an enhanced version of its successful Tiegel model. To protect against copycats, all the company’s presses had a manufacturer’s plate bearing the “Original Heidelberg” trademark.
• 1957: HEIDELBERG creates space to grow. Further expansion within the city of Heidelberg was impossible, but thanks to Sternberg’s strong commitment, the company was able to open what is still its largest production site, in Wiesloch, after a construction period of just one year.
• 1962: HEIDELBERG moves into the up-and-coming offset market with its small offset rotation press (in German: Kleine Offset Rotation, or KOR for short). In 1965, this was followed by the Rotaspeed, a larger sheetfed offset press. Then, in 1972, a large platen offset press (in German: Grosse Tiegel Offset, or GTO for short) was launched and proved a successful model for years to come.
• 1975: A name that says it all! The Speedmaster sheetfed offset press for multicolor printing revolutionized the market with its productivity. Operating at 11,000 sheets per hour, it became a bestseller and is, to this day, a cornerstone of the HEIDELBERG portfolio in the company’s traditional core business.
• 1999: HEIDELBERG acquires a 30 percent shareholding in the Swiss press manufacturer Gallus, a market leader in label printing, before taking over the company completely in 2014.
• 2000: HEIDELBERG transforms itself into a solution provider, expanding its prepress and postpress portfolios through targeted acquisitions. Prinect software ushered in the era of digitalization by networking the various machines in the workflow.
• 2004: HEIDELBERG takes a further key step toward digitalization, connecting a press to the Internet for the first time.
• 2005: The Chinese production site in the Qingpu district of Shanghai opens. Now a cornerstone of the company’s production network, it is becoming increasingly important.
• 2016: At drupa, HEIDELBERG introduces the Push to Stop concept, which only requires operator intervention if a problem occurs–the next logical step toward autonomous printing.
• 2018: Wallbox production starts in Wiesloch-Walldorf. The company subsequently founded a subsidiary called Amperfied that successfully tapped into a new area of business–the electromobility market.
• 2020: The company moves into robotics, with industrial robots driving the automation of the printing process, including postpress operations. This automation will also extend to other areas in the future.
• 2024: The new Jetfire 50 digital press developed in cooperation with Canon is unveiled at drupa 2024, offering industrial productivity in the growth area of digital printing.
• 2025: The company celebrates 175 years of HEIDELBERG and opens its redesigned customer demonstration center, now called the Home of Print, in Wiesloch-Walldorf. A clear growth strategy will take the company into the future.
You can read more about 175 years of HEIDELBERG and history on our anniversary website www.heidelberg.com/175, on the current Wikipedia page of the company, in the yearbook “150 years of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG” and “A Press Is Born”.
About HEIDELBERG
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (HEIDELBERG) is a leading technology company that has been standing for innovation, quality, and reliability in mechanical engineering worldwide for 175 years. With a clear focus on growth and as a total solution provider, HEIDELBERG is driving further development in the core areas of packaging and digital printing, software solutions, and lifecycle business with service and consumables so that customers can achieve maximum productivity and efficiency.
The company is also focusing on expanding into new business areas such as high-precision plant engineering with integrated control systems, automation technology, robotics, and the growing green technologies sector. With its strong international presence in approximately 170 countries, the creative power and expertise of its roughly 9,500 employees, its own production facilities in Europe, China, and the USA, and one of the largest global sales and service networks, the company is ideally positioned for future growth.www.heidelberg.com
Image material and further information about the company are available in the Investor Relations portal and Press Lounge of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen*AG at www.heidelberg.com.
Further information:
Matthias W. Hartung
Group Communications
Phone: +49 6222 82-67123
E-mail: matthias.hartung@heidelberg.com