Statement from Werner Naegeli, President and CEO, Muller Martini Corp.

Thursday, May 29, 2008 will mark the opening of drupa 2008 in Düsseldorf, Germany.  The international event, which will take place at the Düsseldorf Fairgrounds and continue through Wednesday, June 11, 2008, will attract print production professionals from all over the world.  Muller Martini, a pacesetter in automated print finishing solutions, variable size web offset presses and other technologies utilized throughout the global industry, will be in attendance. Muller Martini President and CEO Werner Naegeli comments on several trends for drupa 2008.    

You might remember that drupa 2004 was dominated by networked printing processes. Buzz-words encountered all around the industry were digital workflow, CIM, CIP4 and JDF/JMF.  As one of the leading members of the CIP4 organization, we at Muller Martini had committed ourselves at a very early stage to the digital networking of production systems – even those that included equipment from other manufacturers.

The trend toward linking the separate stages of production into an integrated network solution continues.  Why is that?  Because the economic pressure on our customers continues to grow steadily.  “Predatory competition” and “price pressure” are forcing our customers to adopt the most efficient production methods.  As a leading system partner, our first priority at Muller Martini is helping our customers to succeed in this highly competitive arena.

In concrete terms, this means that we focus on flexible production systems, which facilitate economic manufacturing even for small runs and short production times.  A high level of automation, networkability, fast changeover and low waste are the means to this end.

Here are some already released examples to highlight our new developments in this area:

- Those who attended the LabelExpo trade fair in Brussels, Belgium in September certainly noticed the Alprinta-V.  Numerous packaging printers throughout the world showed great interest in offset technology and in this new Muller Martini variable format web press. The Alprinta-V is highly automated and has continuously variable format inserts, creating a host of new applications – particularly in the growing shrink sleeve market.
- At the IFRA newspaper trade fair in Vienna, Austria, the new ProLiner inserting system attracted a great deal of attention.  ProLiner is a modular system solution that ensures the utmost flexibility and investment security.
- During the Open House event at our factory in Bad Mergentheim, Germany at the beginning of November, Muller Martini surprised visitors with the new Diamant 35 “short run hardcover” book line which boasts production increases of 16 percent over its predecessor model.
- Also in November, the Open House event at Muller Martini Bookbinding Systems in Felben, Switzerland included the global launch of our new ZTM 3697 gathering machine. The ZTM 3697, which was demonstrated at the Open House, has received the coveted Innovation Award by the German Printing Industry.

More advanced technology releases underscoring our commitment to providing flexible production systems and automated workflow systems will be shown at drupa. Our motto in 2008 will be “less is more” – more output, more productivity, more profit with less production resources and less expense.  We invite the U.S. and international industry to visit us at drupa and see all the ways we’re empowering our customers for stronger business success.

Werner Naegeli
President and CEO, Muller Martini Corp.