CORNERING THE SHEETFED MARKET

"Upgrading sheetfed presses today is really impossible," Schmidt agrees. "A new press is needed to really move up to the next level."

Manzi cites new presses' ability to outproduce two to three older presses with less labor and waste, and higher quality as a definitive sales driver—but he also links the continued strength of the POP (point of purchase)/display market and growth of direct offset printing on corrugated with an increase in large format press purchases. In response to the uptick, MAN Roland is currently developing presses to go beyond the 64˝-wide machines currently available.