Priority for the new company is to ensure its service function transitions smoothly from MAN Ferrostaal. Graham Wickham has moved over as service director, and the majority of the former MAN Ferrostaal sheetfed service staff coming over as well. The web services joint venture between the two companies is now completely in the hands of manroland, and carries on as before. John Ostler has moved over as the web sales manager.
The Sydney base is located in Regent Park, new phone number is 02 9645 7900, the Melbourne location is in Clayton tel 03 9545 5276. Both offices will contain the spare parts inventory.
The company has yet to appoint a managing director, but senior manroland management Peter Kuisle and Thomas Moser were in Australia last week attending PacPrint and interviewing candidates. However Ostler says the clear priority for the company is settling the service activity.
Highlighting the company’s success Peter Kuisle, sales director at manroland says, “Australia is the third biggest market for manroland. It is important our customers know we are committed to ensuring the standards of service are higher than ever. Certainly we are in a great position to do that, because sales and service are the priority of the company, and the steps we are taking in Australia will confirm that manroland customers and potential customers will be completely supported.”
The new move into a direct subsidiary marks the end of a near 50 year relationship between manroland and MAN Ferrostaal, who at one time were sister companies within the MAN Group. The move is in line with similar strategy being employed throughout south east Asia, South Africa and Latin America. The US, most of Europe and Japan already has direct manroland subsidiaries.
Kuisle says, “Since we became an independent company we are able to operate completely according to our own wishes. This has freed us in both technology and business matters, and we, and our customers, are reaping the benefits.”
Once the new company is bedded in it will, according to Thomas Moser, vice president for distribution at manroland, be concentrating on sheetfed sales. The company claims it is market leader in web sales, but sales of its sheetfed presses have been thin over the past couple of years.
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