Following the recently announced plans by the GEON Group to build a new ‘super facility’ for printing and mailing services in Auckland, New Zealand, the company has placed a major multi-million dollar order with Heidelberg.
The purchase includes three fully automated Speedmaster presses: SM 102 ten colour perfector, half size CD 74 six colour with coater and XL 105 six colour with coater; all equipped with Image Control and other efficiency-enhancing features.
These three state-of-the-art presses, capable of real production speeds up to 18,000 sph, and incorporating market leading Heidelberg perfecting technologies, will bolster GEON Group’s already impressive production capabilities and customer response times. These new printing units will be joined by a selection of existing equipment to be transferred from Brebner and BPG.
This imposing stable of equipment will offer GEON the high-quality production and output capacity, as well as the versatility it requires to fulfill the company’s stated goal of revolutionising the print and fulfillment business in Australia and New Zealand.
The new site will incorporate world-class technologies and workflows to service the needs of the New Zealand customer base. GEON and Heidelberg have forged a strategic relationship within Australia and New Zealand and this partnership will now help to facilitate the smooth and speedy move into the new premises in Auckland.
Gordon Towell, GEON Group CEO, sees the record purchase as another major step forward in achieving the company’s objective of providing customers with a broader product and service offering. “This is a significant cap-ex investment into New Zealand and is intended to cement our position as the premier provider of print products in Auckland. These presses from the world’s leading manufacturer will ensure that we can continue to provide our customers with the highest quality product at competitive prices.”
Heidelberg Managing Director, Andy Vels Jensen, said of the purchase, “Heidelberg has enjoyed long and successful individual relationships with most of the print production companies now operating within the GEON Group. These companies achieved remarkable success over the years; a success that was further enhanced when consolidated into the GEON Group. I'm very pleased that GEON has decided to place their continued faith in Heidelberg as a business partner. We are particularly proud of our past service performance and our ability to support GEON through our consultancy and business development services.
Jensen adds, “The three presses purchased offer GEON the most versatile and widest range of options for production output, quality and efficiency, and greatly complement the two existing long perfecting presses which will be relocated to GEON Group’s new technologically advanced production facility.”
The peak performance XL 105 will better position GEON for unmatched consistent delivery, growth and market ascendancy. Jensen states, “the new XL press platform is the highest commercial sheetfed output machine in the marketplace today, and its performance is setting new standards world wide. Recently a printer in the US managed to achieve a world record by putting more than 100 million impressions onto an XL in 12 months. So it's fair to say that the press offers a peak return on investment through consistent, quality uptime!”
Andrew Durrans, GEON NZ Group General Manager added, “I am proud to be in a position to manage a truly world-leading print facility – there is no doubt in my mind that our new Auckland site will provide our customers with the best possible range of print solutions.”
Enquiries:
Sandy Maier
Chairman, GEON Group
Ph: +64 211 633 806
Gordon Towell
Group Chief Executive, GEON Group
Ph: +61 2 8667 3072
Background
About GEON Group
GEON Group is a leading commercial printing, mail management, and marketing communications business with operations in New Zealand and Australia. The primary focus is on providing a broad range of high quality print media, direct marketing and fulfilment solutions to a wide range of customers in the publishing, retail, corporate and government sectors. The Group now employs more than 1,500 staff and generates annual revenues of approximately $400 million.
About Heidelberg
Heidelberg is the world’s leading supplier to the print media industry and claims average market shares for sheetfed offset presses in the Australia and New Zealand markets of more than 60%.