There's more than a new logo, colour scheme and new B3 sheetfed to Manroland GB. What this ‘more’ is may not be apparent yet as most of the changes have been going on behind the scenes under the watch of Norman Revill. While he has only been in the top UK job for less than 24 months, it’s already longer than many of his immediate predecessors. And if it’s a poisoned chalice he has picked up, Revill is remarkably up-beat about both the challenges that lie ahead and the changes that have been wrought in recent months.

“We are trying to reposition ourselves in the UK,” he says, adding candidly: “We were market leaders some years ago and have fallen behind because we couldn’t deliver on equipment, service and reliability. The equipment and its reliability have changed and we have an amazing portfolio of presses from the new Roland 50 to the 900XXL. All these presses share the same platform, all are highly reliable and all have the latest technologies.

He continues: “Our future has to be to grow market share in the UK and the way we see to do that is through identifying particular areas to target and using the equipment we have to find the best fit for customer needs.”

All that was simple. The company that is now Manroland first made its appearance in the UK 100 years ago. For many years sales were handled through Pershke Price Service, a reminder of which is the old head office building across the street from today’s offices, showroom and spares operation. Intriguingly the company can trace its history to the founding of the Victoria Press Manufacturing Company in 1908, making this year its centenary. It became Frank F Pershke in 1924, joining with Price Service (and a junior salesman called Eric Tanzer) and then in 1951 became agent for the Roland press. The business remained Pershke Price Service until 2002 when it became MAN Roland GB, and has now mutated again to be Manroland GB. The greatest changes have come in recent years. The company may have shifted just a few hundred metres, but it has moved an awfully long way in the short space of time.

In the old days everything was about machine sales, with Tanzer selling Roland Rekords, Parvas and Favorits by the score. “Eric Tanzer had an enormous influence on the success of MAN Roland in the UK: the press would never have been in that position without Eric Tanzer,” says Revill. Today there is a very different approach, not least because, as he says, “it’s much tougher than in Tanzer’s time”.

“Customers can look to us for help in developing their business strategy going forwards,” says Revill. “This is crucial to us because we don’t want to be just about selling a printing machine; we want to develop business with our customers, to help them identify their way forward and then come up with a suitable mix of equipment, and we can put forward some new ideas from our side. What I’ve found incredible for example is the idea of printing foil where you can print four-colour over the foil to stunning effect, and it’s a retrofittable system for a 700 or 500.”

The press line-up now starts with the Roland 50, a B3 press introduced at Drupa. Revill has employed two trainee sales executives to push this press and the Roland 200 B2 press to new accounts as well as existing clients. One will target the north, the other the south. Apart from anything else this breaks the cycle of filling sales gaps from a pool used to selling other presses.

From Drupa the R200 gains assisted drying, both ir and, with a high pile delivery, the possibility of a uv unit. The Roland 700 with Direct Drive is the flagship “and is one of the most productive, if not the most productive, press in the world” he claims. Moving up the formats, the Roland 900 XXL is the first in this format to offer automatic plate changing. The sheetfed portfolio is strong enough to stand against anything.

This would be worth nothing if the old attitudes had not been buried along with the old name. It’s understandable with a quick succession of men at the top that morale slipped as well as service. Revill recognises this. “One of my first aims has been to get the company back to where it should be and at the same time to develop the relationships between my guys so that they could understand very clearly the commercial aspects of the customers’ business. What we have all suffered from is that when machines go wrong, and every machine will go wrong at times, there’s not been enough emphasis on understanding what that means for the customer; and it doesn’t matter whether that is a customer the size of Polestar or a small business, the message is the same.”

Revill recalls a phone call from a customer irate that he would have to wait more than a day for a spare to arrive to get his press up and running and earning again. That was not acceptable he says, pointing out that web printers, where Revill had been working before taking on sheetfed responsibility, do not have this issue. The problem is owned and sorted. That model is clearly one that he is grafting on to the sheetfed side of Manroland’s business. “This has been led from the top, but has been embraced by everybody,” he says, adding that some persuasion was needed for all to get the point. The numbers have been trimmed as the company gets its own house in order and tries to cope with the same pressures its customers face. As a result “the feedback we get from customers is now exceptional”. He adds: “There is a very clear understanding of what our core message is, everybody understands it and everybody wants to do it. And yes we had too many people: you can’t run a business where you are overloaded with overheads you can’t sustain.”

There is much more training for staff, both on technical aspects of the job and on the listening skills that are necessary to deliver the service levels that Revill wants. There is commercial training so that people understand what makes the customer’s business tick. And there is an employee of the month award, backed up by more than a bunch of flowers, champagne and photo in reception. There is real competition to win the big annual prize he adds.

This was all put into effect at Drupa where customer visits were managed from the off. “We tried to respect our customers and their needs when they come to a show like that. They need to be looked after and looked after well,” Revill says.

The planning that went into the visits was meticulous, checked and rechecked, and involved swathes of people, making sure that everyone understood and knew what was going on. “We prepare, then we prepare and we prepare,” was the mantra. He explains that this is vital, saying: “We had to try to make sure we did not disrespect the effort that companies had made to come to see us.” In short very little was left to chance. “We met a lot of customers who are not buying presses now, but we were still enthusiastic about showing them the new technology, and the value added features that can be built in to provide them as printers with different options without spending a lot of money.”

The proof of the pudding is when customers are followed up with the same meticulous attitude. This will lead to projects and prospects to work on which will lead to new business, even from companies that have never bought from Roland before. It is all about developing the relationship, about always listening and never taking anything for granted. The rewards have come in the large number of projects that the UK company is now working on.

The listening aspect of this new attitude was proven Revill says when the company switched to Rotadyne as the preferred supplier of rollers and for recovering rollers. “We were having issues with the previous supplier in terms of quality of the product and the service we were getting. We listened to what our customers were telling us and we responded to that call,” he explains. This is important for no press manufacturer can afford to live by press sales alone. The number of print operations is falling and each new press has the potential fire power to replace two 10-year-old machines. Consequently Manroland needs to bolster income through sales of finishing equipment on the one hand and through a portfolio of consumables, sold under the Printcom brand, on the other.

There is a full blanket range, strengthened by the parent company’s acquisition of a blanket producer in Germany, and by replacing the UK conversion operation where the investment needed to make it competitive was too steep to contemplate. Moreover, there are founts matched to the presses, coatings and washes. All are produced to Fogra standards and are at the head of the field in terms of low VOC emissions. There is even an approved cleaner to keep the side frames bright in their new livery.

The silver and blue colour scheme, introduced with the new name at Drupa, is bright and fresh, denoting a new business. This is what Revill believes he is leading at Manroland GB. And if under his charge the operation repeats some of the success of the Tanzer period, he is going to be happy indeed.