The German press giant has just established its own direct subsidiary in the region, with Dunwell charged to take the new operation to the forefront of Australian print.. In web sales manroland remains the number one press manufacturer, although installations from its sheetfed division have slipped in recent years.
However since manroland became independent of the MAN Group four years ago the company has been able to focus completely on its market, has pioneered total print solutions with its off-press software and services, has racked up an impressive set of figures, and has just said will not be requiring any German government assistance, setting the platform for a strong future.
Dunwell says, “The opportunity to join one of the giants of the industry was too good to refuse. Everyone in the industry knows the quality and productivity of manroland presses is second to none. My job is to establish a first class service operation, and focus on sales and customer requirements.”
Dunwell is unperturbed by joining a capital equipment vendor in the current economic conditions. He says, “I don’t buy the idea that there is no money around. I have just signed off on $6m worth of orders in the last 30 days at Currie. I think if you have the right products to help printers develop their business then the investment funds become available, and there is no doubt that manroland presses will help printers develop their businesses.”
The new company has its offices, spare parts and service centres in Sydney and Melbourne. Graham Wickham has been appointed service director, he was formerly in the same role at MAN Ferrostaal, which had been supplying manroland presses. Many of Wickham’s service e team have moved with him. John Ostler has also moved over to head web sales.
For the past six years Dunwell has been NSW state manager for Currie Group, prior to that he was sales and marketing director at Creo, which he joined when Creo bought his company Media Tech in 2000.
The manroland product and service portfolio, which was offered by MAN Ferrostaal and Web Services Australia, is now bundled in the new manroland organisation: manroland Australasia. Since June 1, manroland Australasia, fully owned by manroland AG, has taken responsiblity for sales, marketing, and services for the entire manroland product range in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific region.
Dunwell adds, “We are now bolstering the already strong manroland team for the long term future. The start of this new sales and service organisation has opened up new favourable prospects for the company and thus for manroland’s customers. It will further strengthen the already service focused manroland business, which was established by Graham Wickham and his team over the last 18 months.
“We want to replicate manroland’s worldwide success with huge efforts in sales and marketing. The product range is now offered directly from the source and includes sheetfed and web presses as well as a wide range of services with print services, print com, print net, and print advice. One of the main goals at manroland is to optimise the benefits of our presses and enable future opportunities for value-added processes.”
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