11/27/2003
Today, the Supervisory Board of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
agreed to a proposal by Heidelberg's Management Board to
streamline its organisation and divest its activities in research,
development and production of web offset presses. Heidelberg's
Management is in negotiations with potential partners for its Web
Systems business, which include close cooperation for the installed
base and future customer care.
In the Digital division, Heidelberg must adapt capacities and
will refocus its activities. The Management Board will present an
appropriate solution by the end of the current fiscal year.
The postpress division will become a separate entity,
focusing entirely on the requirements of the postpress equipment
market.
All this allows Heidelberg to concentrate its resources on
sheetfed offset printing and all its related value chain, including
prepress, press, postpress and workflow management.
Heidelberg's worldwide sales and service network will continue
to offer competent support and consulting for Heidelberg's own
products and products from first class partners to all its
customers.
"Heidelberg will continue to provide products for
premium quality print results. Our target markets will mainly be
commercial printers, focusing on short and medium print runs, as
well as packaging and label printing", said Bernhard Schreier,
CEO of Heidelberg.
As a consequence of all these changes, Heidelberg will adapt
its organizational structure. The divisional structure will be
streamlined to a leaner functional organization, leading to a
further reduction of the workforce by up to 1,000 employees
worldwide.
Within the Board, Bernhard Schreier as CEO will additionally
be responsible for the worldwide sales and services network, as
well as for R&D and operations. Dr. Klaus Spiegel will assume
responsibility for the entire product portfolio and marketing, and
Dr. Herbert Meyer will remain CFO.
Wolfgang Pfizenmaier (56) and Holger Reichardt (49) will
resign from the Management Board in mutual and friendly agreement
with the Supervisory Board.
The new focus will influence the coming year-end financials.
While sales and operating profit targets for the financial year
remain unchanged, additional one-time-costs of up to 400 million
Euro will arise for restructuring and, to a greater part, book
losses in connection with the planned divestment of Web Systems and
the repositioning of Digital and Postpress. "Overall, the new
focus will significantly improve our profitability and cash flow in
the short and medium term, and thus enables us to achieve the
financial targets we have set for the company", said Herbert
Meyer, CFO of Heidelberg.
For further information:
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
Investor Relations
Dirk Kaliebe
Tel: +49 (0)6221 92 60 20
Fax: +49 (0)6221 92 60 61
E-mail:

Over the course of its more than 150-year history, Heidelberg has grown from a traditional printing press manufacturer to become the world's largest solutions provider for the print media industry. With its seamlessly integrated hardware and software solutions, it has established a commanding lead over other market players. Heidelberg is a one-stop supplier of everything from prepress solutions to a wide range of products for printing and finishing processes, relevant training and accompanying services. More