Measures to limit the spread of the virus:
Like many businesses, our very first reflex when the pandemic broke out was to focus on the health and safety of our employees: we closed our Print Media Centers and Academies for public access, restricted travels to a minimum, and provided our staff with the tools to enable them to work from home whenever possible. Special protection measures were put in place for employees whose jobs require their physical presence at our production facilities.
Measures to ensure service continuity:
Our next priority was to develop a service continuity plan for our customers. The question we've asked ourselves was: what can our company do to support our customers’ businesses during this crisis? How can we ensure they get the supplies and services they need, when onsite service calls are almost impossible to organize if not plain prohibited? What can we offer customers whose businesses shut down - either because they were required to do so by local authorities or because demand for print jobs simply stopped from one day to another?
Here are some examples of initiatives we have taken to help our customers and communities surmount these challenges*
*Disclaimer: These are individual examples. The support Heidelberg is able to provide may vary from country to country and from case to case, based on local regulations and availability of resources.
During the current COVID-19 situation, we offer customers and prospects around the world the possibility to register for a personalized remote demonstration of our press and postpress machines. This service enables them to experience our machines up close and personal and to interact with our experts from the comfort and safety of their home.
Here is an example of a remote demonstration on a Multimatrix die-cutter.
Contact your local Heidelberg office if you are interested in a remote demonstration.
A message from Heidelberg UK.
So far this year, the COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly disruptive for the print media industry.
Not only did it lead to the last-minute postponement of drupa - the most important event of the industry, - it also put thousands of commercial print shops around the world abruptly out of a job, in countries where, during lockdown, they were considered to be non-essential businesses. On the other hand, packaging and label print shops have been put under particular strain, caught between a staggering demand and a dire lack of supplies - in particular, dampening solutions and any prepress or press chemicals based on isopropyl alcohol.
Some of our customers have been particularly creative in finding ways to cope with the situation: here are stories we collected from the field.
Based in Portland, Oregon, Morel Ink is taking its commitment to the community to the next level with its most recent project – “Save Lives Stay Home,” which helps support those on the front lines of COVID-19. With the “Save Lives Stay Home” project, Morel Ink is producing and selling posters based off of artwork created by Artist, Wonder Knack. Buyers are encouraged to put the poster, which sells for $20, in their windows to show solidarity for Oregon and Washington healthcare professionals during the trying times of COVID-19. Morel Ink donates the proceeds towards healthcare workers who have unmet financial needs due to the illness.
According to Ben Wood, CEO of Morel Ink, “When I saw this beautiful poster, I knew I had to do something – it captured my imagination. Being in the printing industry, it was an opportunity for us to take this compelling art, bring it to life on paper, and put it out in the world to do some good.”
