Steve Dunwell, current managing director of manroland Australasia, bade farewell to industry colleagues, customers and friends at a retirement party last night.

The event at Banjo Patterson’s restaurant attracted the top tier of Australian print, with senior execs from commercial printers IPMG, PMP, and IVE, newspaper publishers Fairfax and News, and packaging outfits Hannapack and GPIA among those represented.

Dunwell said, “It has been a pleasure to be part of this industry for my working life. I have been fortunate to represent some great companies and work with some outstanding customers. In the end it is all about people.”

Dunwell has had a long and successful career in capital equipment sales, with Harris, Scitex, Creo, Indigo and for the past seven years as head of iconic press manufacturer manroland Australasia. He has had his own business, MediaTech for 15 years from the mid 1980s, then worked for Currie Group for seven years, taking over at manroland in 2009.

Dunwell paid tribute to John Parker, former managing director of Rural Press who was at the event, and who was partly responsible for Dunwell getting the Harris agency in the 1980s. He also thanked long-time assistant Alison Whitelaw who has been with him for 30 years. His wife Carol received special mention, and Dunwell’s affection for his various sales teams was evident.

Among the speakers Fairfax group director printing and distribution Bob Lockley thanked Dunwell for 30 years of providing advanced technology to the business.

At manroland Australasia former sheetfed manager, Dennis Wickham becomes the new managing director while Andreas Schwoepfinger, is the new director of technical services.

Dunwell paid one last visit to manroland Augsburg last month, where he came back with another order for a web press. He says this takes forward orders for the year for manroland Australasia to $34m.

His final day is Friday, following which he will be on a on overseas holiday with Carol.

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