True to its roots and yet international in outlook, and highly innovative while respecting its long tradition – this is how Siegwerk presents itself at the drupa 2008 trade show in Duesseldorf, Germany.

Visitors can find one of the world’s leading manufacturers of printing inks at booth E49 in hall 04. Siegwerk’s new philosophy “Ink, Heart & Soul” means that Siegwerk people develop individual printing ink solutions with heart and soul. Siegwerk partners with customers to deliver optimum results at every stage of the printing process and beyond. The booth contains examples of how this approach has succeeded, drawn from ten different customer segments.
 
“Because we are a family-owned business, our people feel a real connection with the company, and we have built up long-term relationships with our customers over many years,” said Siegwerk CEO Herbert Forker. “Our approach consciously differentiates us from other players in the market, and it enables us to offer genuine added value to our partners. Global customer surveys tell us that we are seen as being highly professional, passionate about what we do, always close to the customer and extremely reliable.”

Through an international manufacturing and development network, Siegwerk can offer a consistent product quality and short delivery times all over the world. High-profile global brands and big publishing houses in particular demand for consistent quality levels for all markets served.

“As a globally integrated supplier with Ink, Heart & Soul, we have a key competitive advantage in the global printing inks market – and it’s an advantage we fully intend to build on,” Mr. Forker said.

The booth is decorated in the corporate red color, and has a total floor space of 480 square meters (5,150 square feet), spread over three levels. The focal point are the glass cases that contain individual customer solutions developed by Siegwerk for some of its high-prestige customers. These samples provide evidence of the company’s high technical and consulting expertise, relating to every aspect of printing across all of its ten different customer segments: flexible packaging, tobacco, labels, liquid food packaging, conventional sheetfed and UV, paper & board, coldset, heatset and publication gravure.

Solutions on display include:

•    A dark black UV printing ink for the Harry Potter books
•    An innovative two-component solution for flexible packaging
•    High-quality UV inks for packaging used for perfumes and spirits known around the world
•    New water-based technologies for tobacco packaging
•    Scented inks and lacquers for coldset and heatset applications
•    Offset printing inks with vegetable-based solvents.

Proximity, reliability and tradition
Three Content Areas of the booth are dedicated to Siegwerk’s proximity, reliability and tradition. They contain interactive multimedia displays where visitors can find out more about these three aspects of the company.
•    Proximity: Siegwerk has a global presence, delivers just-in-time, and provides customers with on-site support from skilled staff as and when required.
•    Reliability: “Siegwerkers” always respond quickly, and try to make things as easy as possible for the customer, building lasting relationships based on trust.
•    Tradition: Siegwerk has a long-term vision, and a strong commitment to product and service quality that goes back 175 years.

Siegwerk’s new positioning has been built upon far-reaching changes in recent months and years. Since the last drupa trade show in 2004, the company has tripled its annual sales, and 3,000 people have joined the company. Centers of Excellence in each important market produce the basic inks for all Siegwerk products, while blending centers in the individual markets carry out the final stage in the manufacturing process and blend the inks according to individual customers’ specifications.

In Europe, Siegwerk aims to further strengthen the market-leading position it already enjoys. In the Asian region, the company sees enormous growth opportunities in the flexible packaging segment. In 2007, it acquired full ownership of PIBU Ink India. It also opened a Competence Center for flexible packaging in Shanghai, and announced plans to expand its Chinese manufacturing capacity. The North American plant in Des Moines, IA has already more than doubled its flexible packaging production capacity in the last two years. In South America, a new Center of Excellence is being built for Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a new Blending Center for São Paulo, Brazil. Siegwerk has also expanded its operations in Africa, and just recently started to produce in Ibadan, Nigeria.

With more than 175 years of experience, Siegwerk commands a profound product knowledge and expertise for many printing methods. Its actions are market-driven – or even drive the market, which is proven by many patents. With currently 4,000 staff in 34 country organizations we are able to supply and support every customer anywhere in the world.