Manroland roadshow lands in the UK

Manroland’s international roadshow landed in the UK last week (March 13^th) with a VIP event at the Newcastle production facility of Manroland customer, Potts Print.

The show from litho offset print manufacturer, Manroland, fulfilled on its promise to be a demonstration with a difference. Visitors were greeted with a dramatically lit corridor lined with Manroland prints, before entering the transformed main event space at Pott’s Print’s production headquarters featuring two Manroland Evolution presses.

The presses were lit up with eye-catching red, blue, and white moving lighting, with more prints and banners lining the walls. Leaning into a nostalgic ‘eighties’ theme, a long LED panel along the Manroland Evolution R700 had roaming red lights moving back and forth in imitation of the iconic car from the TV show, Knightrider, complete with sound effects.

The show then kicked off with a projected video detailing the features of Manroland presses which included the Knightrider theme song. This was followed by an opening speech from Daniel Godbold, managing director of Manroland Sheetfed UK.

Within his speech, Godbold spoke in more detail about the company's machine offerings, saying: “You want maximum uptime, you want a robust machine, you want staff trained to the highest standards; then you want a Manroland Evolution.”

After Godbold’s speech was a welcome speech from Manrold Group chief executive officer, Mirko Kern, followed by elaborations about the R700 by representatives of Manroland Global including Jens Kaiser, Robin Pradel, and Vincent Tillemans.

During these detailed discussions, both of Pott’s Print’s Manroland machines were fired up simultaneously for almost an hour, allowing customers to see the full print process and study a range of samples.

More videos complete with pumping music and fast-paced visuals demonstrated other key features of Manroland and its presses, aiming to fulfil Godbold’s promise to “make print exciting again”. Godbold also spoke about a need to get the younger generation excited about the industry, demonstrating this with a video excerpt of the ‘suiting up’ scene from the Marvel film Iron Man.

The show was organised from the ground up by Gitika Hariyan, who was recently hired to oversee Manroland Sheetfed UK's marketing endeavours.

Among those in attendance were Manroland shareholders Langley Holdings, namely Mr Tony Langley along with sons Bernard and William Langley.

Speaking to Print Monthly at the event, Bernard and William Langley stressed that Manroland had “not gone anywhere” and was here to stay, with a robust plan for success into the future backed by Langley Holdings. They also discussed the thinking behind the Roadshow event, saying that the aim is to connect directly to Manroland customers as opposed to attending major exhibitions such as drupa.

After the core demonstration event, attendees travelled to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in central Newcastle, where they enjoyed networking, drinks, and the chance to interact with professionals from Manroland Sheetfed including Joaquin Pujol, Stewart Kerr, and Michael Harding.

The event was rounded off with an evening of music, dinner, and drinks, alongside a live jazz band and entertainment including a pub quiz.

Speaking to Print Monthly during the dinner, Mirko Kern, group chief executive officer of Manroland Group, said: “It was really well organised. The team have really worked hard and they have got a really good range of our customers here for the event.

"What I got from the customer feedback was that everyone was really impressed about the show and about Manroland.”

Speaking in more detail about Manroland’s focus, Kern added: “We are focused on what we are doing, which is making high quality litho offset machines. With that in combination with the fantastic staff we have within each country, we ensure a good solution for our customer.”

Photos from the event