Megadeal for Heidelberg – leading European publishing printer Wilco invests in eleven high-tech Speedmaster XL 106 presses
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) is experiencing steady investment growth in key market segments and regions. The company recently achieved a major sales success in the publishing sector, which constitutes one of the largest cultural industries in Europe with an estimated total market value of 36-38 billion euros. With over 500,000 works published each year, Europe’s book industry is also exceptionally diverse and has performed amazingly well in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic. This positive trend is bringing about a more favorable investment climate in publishing print shops. It was against this backdrop that one of Europes leading publishing and book printer Wilco located in the Netherlands decided to replace the majority of its printing presses with a total of eleven 2020-generation Speedmaster XL 106 presses from Heidelberg as part of its site consolidation plans and the associated construction work for a new production center in Amersfoort. These offset printing systems featuring the enhanced Push to Stop technology have various configurations, including four models just for the Speedmaster XL 106 8P, some with LED UV technology.
Total of 61 latest-generation printing units featuring Push to Stop technology
Just last year, Heidelberg installed 18 new XL 106 printing units at the Wilco site in Amersfoort. After ordering another eight Speedmaster XL 106 presses with a total of 43 more printing units, Wilco has now become one of the biggest users of the latest Speedmaster XL 106 generation. Wilco has concluded an additional Print Site Contract for the continuous supply of consumables, which ensures materials required for smooth operation, including ink, are delivered as and when required based on actual consumption.
“If, like us at Wilco, a company wants to be able to supply a whole range of products – from books, annual reports, and magazines all the way to direct marketing materials and flyers – in the shortest possible time, in the best quality, and on a sustainably competitive basis, it needs a motivated team, maximum efficiency, and state-of-the-art technologies,” says Robert Jan de Rooij, founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Wilco. “When it comes to cutting-edge technology, the portfolio and services offered by Heidelberg completely won us over. We see our investment decision as a groundbreaking move for boosting productivity and tightening our focus on the customer.”
Allaoui Graphic Machinery as a strategic Partner for Heidelberg
Construction work in Amersfoort is due to be completed this September, by which point all the presses will have been installed at the new Wilco site. Wilco is thus replacing eleven existing presses – all of which have been bought by the Aachen-based family-run company Allaoui Graphic Machinery GmbH (AGM). Owing to its data-based market intelligence and innovative machine-matching expertise, AGM is a strategic and reliable partner for Heidelberg and its approach goes hand in hand with the data-driven, customer-focused sales approaches at Heidelberg.
“We are seeing investments steadily rise in markets and regions that are important for us. The Smart Print Shop of the future offers our customers the opportunity to reposition themselves and invest, even in challenging times,” says Heidelberg CEO Rainer Hundsdörfer. “This deal is one of the biggest combined equipment sales in our company’s history. Our sales and service organization and our product management team have worked closely and very professionally with Allaoui Graphic Machinery GmbH on this project.”