Manroland's headquarters are located in Offenbach and Augsburg, Germany. The company employs 6,500 people worldwide, with an international network spanning nearly 250 countries and more than 140 marketing and service centers. Its web offset presses, sheetfed offset presses, and digital printing systems are primary production equipment for publication printing, commercial printing, and packaging printing. The Manroland Group filed for bankruptcy protection on November 25, 2011. On February 1, 2012, the British engineering group Langley Holdings plc. took over Manroland AG's sheetfed press business. The acquisition included Manroland's production plant in Offenbach (including all real estate) and its marketing organizations in more than 40 countries worldwide. With this, Manroland's restructuring was completed, and the company was formally divided into three parts: the sheetfed press production plant in Offenbach was taken over by the British engineering group Langley Holdings plc., establishing Manroland Sheetfed Printing Systems Co., Ltd. [2]
Milestones in Manroland's history: Manroland's history can be traced back to the origins of printing press manufacturing. Since the invention of the first automatic letterpress printing press in 1845, Manroland's development journey began. 1845: Carl August Reichenbach of the Augsburg Printing Machinery Factory delivered the first automatic cylinder printing press to the Nikolaus Hartmann's printing plant in Augsburg. 1857: A joint-stock company was formed and renamed the Augsburg Machinery Manufacturing Factory. 1872: A newspaper printing plant was established, powered by steam boilers and steam engines. 1873: The first "continuous-feed printing press" (i.e., printing from a paper web) was exhibited at the World Exhibition in Vienna. 1889: Through a merger, the "Augsburg and Nuremberg United Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd." was formed, and in 1908 it was renamed the "Augsburg and Nuremberg United Machinery Company" — MAN. 1911: The first ROLAND sheetfed offset press was manufactured. 1921: The prototype of the first three-cylinder web press in Berliner format was developed. 1922: A new single-color offset press — the Klein-Roland 00 — was launched, achieving a printing speed of up to 5,000 sheets per hour. 1931: A new rotary press was developed, capable of printing 25,000 16-page newspapers per hour. World War II. 1951: The four-color sheetfed offset press — the Ultra — was exhibited at the first drupa printing trade fair. 1960: Three-quarters of the total newspaper volume in Germany was printed on presses manufactured in Augsburg. 1972: The ROLAND 800 press was launched — the first sheetfed offset press with an integrated color control system, achieving a printing speed of 10,000 sheets per hour. 1974: Europe's largest web offset press was manufactured in Augsburg: the COLORMAN press with 17 paper webs and 62 printing units. 1979: Manroland Printing Machinery AG (Offenbach am Main) was formally established. This company was formed through the merger of "Roland Offset- Und Maschinenfabrik Faber and Schleicher" and "Augsburger M.A.N.-Druck and Maschinenbau." 1986: The LITHOMAN web press was launched, with a printing speed of 60,000 revolutions per hour and electronic console technology. 1987: MAVO, the first remote control technology for printing presses based on the Motorola 6800 chip, entered the United States in Asheville, North Carolina. Zravko Krovinovic and his team created new technology in the U.S. using hardware and software from Augsburg. This COLORMAN 75 press was upgraded in 2008. It was shut down in 2009 when the U.S. newspaper industry declined. 1990: PECOM console technology was launched. Together with the new automation concept for the medium-format ROLAND 700 press, printing speeds reached 15,000 sheets per hour. 1990: German reunification — Manroland took over VEB Planeta, the largest offset press manufacturer in the Warsaw Pact. 1995: The LITHOMAN press was exhibited at drupa, presenting a new concept for commercial web printing. With numerous add-on components, it could be expanded into a versatile production system to meet various requirements. The first intranet-based remote fault diagnosis system demonstrated to numerous customers how costs could be significantly reduced. At the same drupa printing trade fair in Düsseldorf, Germany, the large-format sheetfed offset press — the ROLAND 900 — also made its debut. Due to a global economic recession in the printing industry, Manroland experienced a severe crisis from 2001 to 2004. During this period, Manroland made adjustments for future development. In 2002, Manroland acquired a controlling stake in ppi Media GmbH, a software company. ppi Media, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, serves global customers and developed workflow solutions for automated planning and production processes in publishing and printing. ppi Media was founded in 1984 and employs approximately 150 people at its offices in Hamburg, Kiel, and Chicago, USA. After extensive restructuring, the company returned to profitability in 2005. In January 2006, MAN transferred the majority stake in its subsidiary Manroland Printing Machinery AG to investor Allianz Capital Partners (ACP) — Allianz Private Equity, itself a subsidiary of Allianz. Manroland was now controlled by an investment company. The shareholding structure was: MAN Group 35%, Allianz 65%. In addition to the shares, the investment company took over all business activities and all subsidiaries, including existing debts. The aim was to further develop the world's second-largest printing systems manufacturer and to enable it to go public within a few years. The company regarded this as an important opportunity to consolidate its position as a leader in printing technology. In October 2006, new technology — DirectDrive — was launched in Mainz, Germany, the birthplace of Johannes Gutenberg. Directly driving the plate cylinder reduced makeready time by 60%. May 2008: MAN Roland Printing Machinery AG was renamed manroland AG. The new logo was unveiled at a press conference at the drupa printing trade fair in Düsseldorf on May 28, 2008. June 2009: As the U.S. economy cooled, Manroland USA faced layoffs. However, some orders indicated that the "Porsche" of printing presses still had its admirers even in a difficult market. 2010: The autoprint automatic printing function was launched: this represented a vision for the printing press, achieving the highest degree of automation in offset printing by pressing a single key (pressed only once). Manroland was already a leader in automation for newspaper and commercial web presses, and now realized this concept in sheetfed presses as well. 2010: Manroland began selling inkjet digital printing systems from Océ. In the same year, the first 96-page LITHOMAN web printing system was sold. 2011: Through Manroland Industrial Services, the company provided highly certified contract technical personnel. Product introduction: Sheetfed presses: The product range covers small-format, medium-format, and large-format sheetfed presses. At the 2008 drupa printing trade fair, the new 36/52 (00) small-format press was launched. Web presses: Including newspaper and commercial web printing presses. PRINTVALUE brand: printcom printing materials, printservices technical support, printnetwork printing systems, and printadvice printing consultancy. Company introduction: Manroland (China) Co., Ltd. As early as 1921, Manroland's business in China began to take root; today, Manroland Greater China is able to provide the Chinese printing and publishing industry with a full range of diversified products and services, comprehensively addressing customer needs in prepress, printing, printing materials, engineering services, and parts. Over the years, customers in Manroland's Greater China region have regarded Manroland as their most outstanding business partner: a market leader from Germany with regional experience, committed to providing customers with excellent and high-quality service. Through in-depth understanding of individual customers' business operations, the challenges they face, and their needs, Manroland has established long-term partnerships with many customers in Greater China. Since establishing its first Greater China office in Hong Kong in 1972, the foundation for cooperation between Manroland and its customers was laid, and business has continued to grow steadily since then. Today, Manroland has established sales and service networks in seven locations across China. "Value-Added Printing in China" campaign: Shortly after successfully completing its restructuring, Manroland launched the "Value-Added Printing in China" series of events, aimed at promoting more advanced value-added printing solutions to more customers and achieving high-efficiency, high-performance value-added printing. March 20 and 22, 2012, Zibo and Hefei — In recent years, China's printing industry has achieved unprecedented leapfrog development. However, a prosperous market means even more intense competition. How can printing companies stand out from fierce price wars? High-value-added printing solutions are the key. With this in mind, shortly after successfully completing its restructuring, Manroland launched the "Value-Added Printing in China" series of events, aimed at promoting more advanced value-added printing solutions to more customers and achieving high-efficiency, high-performance value-added printing. The first two sessions of "Focus on Packaging Printing, Achieve Extraordinary Success" were successfully held in Zibo and Hefei — this was the first wave of impact launched by Manroland after its successful restructuring. As Mr. Huang Zhuohua, General Manager of Manroland's Printing Equipment Division, stated: "Since the end of last year, Manroland has experienced a very challenging period. During this time, we would like to sincerely thank our customers for their strong support and high trust, which allowed Manroland Greater China to maintain a continuous upward trend in orders even during extraordinary times." In addition, when introducing the new Manroland, Mr. Huang pointed out: "Filing for bankruptcy protection opened up an opportunity for us. With the entry of new investors, Manroland is rapidly restructuring to adapt to the global printing industry's development trends. We believe that with our customer-first service philosophy and pioneering products and technologies, Manroland will surely achieve new brilliance in the process of becoming our customers' most outstanding business partner!"
Bankruptcy filing: German printing press manufacturer Manroland Group filed for bankruptcy on November 25, 2011 — the largest corporate bankruptcy in Germany since the collapse of retail giant Arcandor in June 2009. Bloomberg News reported that Manroland had submitted a bankruptcy application to the Augsburg District Court in Germany, and court spokesman Alfred Schwarz confirmed the news. Manroland employs 6,500 people worldwide, most of them in Germany. It is reported that the German printing machinery industry had been in decline because these machines are expensive, generally priced at over one million US dollars, and with the advent of the online publishing era, demand for printed materials has continued to decline.
