Day 11 - 08 June 2008

manroland – drupa Goldfish

	There are many fish in the drupa basin, but manroland is the goldfish. Enlarge view

The History of manroland: A strong Brand for more than 160 Years

It all began in Augsburg or, more precisely, with Carl August Reichenbach and Carl Buz. In 1845 Reichenbach started building printing presses in Augsburg with the first most modern automatic cylinder press. In 1857 the operations of Reichenbach and Buz were incorporated in the joint stock company Maschinenfabrik Augsburg. During the following years they developed among other things the first German printing press using endless paper which was introduced at the World Fair in Vienna in 1873. This is where part of today’s name first appears: in 1909 the company name was changed to MAN: Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg. Enlarge view

The Roland part first saw the light of day in Offenbach where, in 1871, Louis Faber and Adolf Schleicher founded an Association for Production of Lithographic presses. They built their first press in the same year; the ALBATROS. In 1900 the company was renamed Faber & Schleicher AG, and in 1911 it produced the first ROLAND sheetfed rotary offset press. Incidentally, they named it after Roland, a heroic knight from the court of Karl the Great. From then on the name Roland became a synonym for sheetfed offset presses. Enlarge view

In 1979 it all came together: the Roland Offsetmaschinenfabrik Faber & Schleicher, Offenbach, and the printing press division of the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nurnberg amalgamated to form MAN Roland Druckmaschinen AG – a name that was to achieve lasting fame in the printing industry. Many things have happened since 1845. But that’s far from the end of the fascinating history. Another radical step was taken in 2008 as MAN Roland was renamed manroland.

Family Outing

	Dr Ingo Koch, Member of the Executive Board of manroland, was all smiles when his family came to visit him on Sunday. His wife Heike, his daughter Tina, and his son Patrick kept such a fond memory of their visit to drupa 2004 that they absolutely wanted to repeat this excursion and came to this year’s drupa, too. Enlarge view