Manroland Sheetfed – a Story of Evolution
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MANROLAND SHEETFED -A STORY OF EVOLUTION By Alan Hurndall, Independent Journalist Manroland Sheetfed is in rude health, posting consistent profits and launching a ground breaking new Press -the ROLAND 700 Evolution. When Tony Langley stepped in to save the company from the Receiver three years ago, the German print giant was on a life support machine. Alan Hurndall speaks to Manroland’s CEO Rafael Penuela about the road to recovery. Rafael Penuela Chief Executive Officer Manroland Sheetfed GmbH There’s one illuminating story that sums up the difference between Manroland past and present. In those dark days pre 2012, as Head of Sales, Rafael Penuela would spend three-quarters of his working day in rounds of endless meetings. He practically lived in the boardroom, briefing an army of colleagues. The pedigree and technical expertise of a highly regarded workforce was always there. But it was an organisation stifled by formality, structure, and process. It was paralysis by analysis. And the company hit the rocks. “At that time I was an expert of Powerpoint presentations to whole groups of people. But since the takeover I haven’t done one,” says Rafael, now the CEO for the whole Manroland operation. “The most people I have in meetings now is four and since the takeover I’ve only been in the boardroom on a handful of occasions.” We speak via video link to the company headquarters in Offenbach, the heartland of German precision engineering. It’s a vast village, occupying 70 acres. Half the 1,600 or so workforce are stationed there, the remainder spread across the globe in sales and marketing. The Manroland acquisition by the Langley Group in 2012 surprised many by its audacity. The target company was bigger than the burgeoning British-based multi-disciplined engineering group, and Manroland is now the largest of Langley’s divisions both in revenue and employee terms. The son of a construction worker, Rafael was born in Spain but moved to Germany as a nine-year-old - the only place where his father could find work. After a transition period, Tony Langley asked Rafael, who’d been associated with Manroland one way or another since 1992, to run the new organisation. His promotion meant he’s had to learn other areas of the business to complement his sales expertise. An early interesting tactic was to stop targeting customers who were already tied to the machinery of competitors. Instead, the emphasis was giving all Manroland clients added value in terms of support, quality, efficiency, and operation. The first thing the new Manroland had to do was to learn to stand on its own feet. Its masters made it clear that there would be no handouts, no loans from shareholders or banks.

In November 2014, the company launched its latest trailblazer, the Roland 700 Evolution, setting a new standard in press technology. Photo: Roland 700 Evolution Press “That’s a very healthy philosophy because it means you can only spend what you earn,” says Rafael. Market conditions didn’t help. The printed word declined against the advance of electronic media. Demand in China, which buys 30 per cent of all presses, slumped dramatically almost overnight. The market setback was countered by efficiencies across the company, moving all the manufacturing operations onto the one site, and...