Drent Goebel Acquires Majority Shareholding in RDP Marathon

MONTREAL, Canada- Drent Goebel has acquired Canada's RDP Marathon. Following the merger of Drent and Goebel in 2001 and the acquisition of Giebeler in 2003 this step will further strengthen Drent Goebel's position, especially in the US and Canadian markets.

RDP Marathon, based in Montreal, Canada, has built a very strong reputation in the North American market with soundly built machines. RDP has a large market share especially in the commercial printing market for long runs. RDP builds the V-series blanket to steel and the P-series blanket to blanket machines for this market. These presses with web widths up to 965 mm (38-inch) will fit perfectly into the extensive Drent Goebel portfolio.

Synergy for both sides

According to Rob Teunissen, C.E.O. of Drent Goebel, the success of Drent Goebel's Variable Sleeve Offset Printing (VSOP) press in the North-American market makes this step as logical as it is necessary. "We already had our own service and sales organization in Chicago. Looking at the potential of the VSOP in the North-American market, this acquisition was the best possible way to strengthen our organization. RDP Marathon is the perfect partner for this, having not only a particularly good reputation in the market, but also outstanding presses with a large installed base and a fully tooled-up sales, service and manufacturing organization."

Eric Short, President of RDP Marathon, is also particularly delighted that two leading players in the global market will be adding to each other's strengths, working together from now on. "What we are going to achieve is synergy between the two companies. I know that it is a much abused word, but it states exactly the strength of our collaboration. Both companies have their roots in designing and building durable and innovative presses. Drent Goebel is strong in Europe and in up-and-coming markets such as Asia. We serve Canada and the United States with our sales and service. A perfect match."

Tradition of innovation

Since the beginning of the century Drent Goebel has been a successful combination of two industry leaders in this market.

From its early days Drent Goebel has been at the forefront with many revolutionary innovations in the printing industry. Thus with the Vision Drent introduced the first modular built offset press in the world in which all units are independently driven by servo motors. The next logical step was to develop the knowledge of servo technology on to a gearless concept, with which Drent Goebel is alone in the world in being able to offer the graphics market a fully variable offset machine. After gearless, Drent Goebel came up with the sleeve concept in its VSOP press. Sleeve technology, which proved itself in gravure and flexo presses, brings the superior quality of offset within reach of packaging and label printers.

Robust and reliable

RDP Marathon was established in 1989. The company supplies a wide range of printing presses that use a combination of printing processes: core capabilities include gravure, flexo, waterless and offset printing.

RDP Marathon is known primarily for building robust and reliable machines.

Eric Short: "RDP Marathon stands for Reliable, Durable and Precision. This acquisition gives us access to a large number of top engineers who can make optimum use of their knowledge to build durable and innovative printing presses for our customers. As for the future, this combined knowledge will produce even better machines."

RDP Marathon has its own engineering department and will also be assembling VSOP presses destined for the North-American market. Sales for the North American market are managed from Montreal by Eric Short. Service for Drent Goebel presses will be coordinated out of the Chicago office. RDP will keep its own service coordination.

The coming months will be used to optimize the synergy of the two organizations.