In January 2015, the Lensing Druck Group merged the sheetfed and digital printing operations of Westmünsterland Druck (Ahaus) and Hitzegrad Print Medien & Service (Dortmund) at a new site in Dortmund-Kley, which now has around 100 employees. The Group thus increased its commercial print shop’s production area to over 6,000 square meters (64,500 sq ft) and is continuing its growth trajectory. To meet the changing demands in printing and remain flexible, Lensing has now opted for the new subscription model from Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg).
This new digital business model from Heidelberg offers Lensing all the components it needs to run its print shop successfully, such as the press system, software, consumables for all offset presses, and service. Lensing in return gets defined printing capacity that it can utilize for its customer orders. It only pays for use of this capacity (pay-per-use). Overall productivity at Lensing is also expected to rise further during the five-year contract period thanks to the optimized interplay of all the components.
“With its high-quality products, our renowned commercial print shop at the Dortmund-Kley site serves a wide range of very discerning customers and we’re looking to achieve further growth. To ensure we can continue to focus our full attention on our customers in this phase, too, we’re using the new Heidelberg subscription model,” says Martin Cremer, Managing Director of the Lensing Druck Group. “At the same time, we’re making ourselves fit for the future by extensively digitizing a whole range of processes.”
“Increasing numbers of commercial and packaging print shops are interested in our new digital business model and are opting for it,” says Prof. Ulrich Hermann, member of the Management Board and Chief Digital Officer at Heidelberg. “This underscores the appeal of the model, which aligns the interests of our customers with our goal as their supplier – that of continually increasing output! We are also seeing that, along with contract presses, most print shops are also transferring consumables to us for all existing presses so as to maximize the benefits of reduced planning and enhanced performance in selecting optimum products,” adds Hermann.
The Heidelberg subscription model is following the growing pay-per-use trend in mechanical engineering and aims to move away from growth based solely on selling and installing printing capacity.
Lensing Chooses Digitization from Heidelberg
Push to Stop technology from Heidelberg, which was showcased at drupa 2016, meets market needs head on as the process of digitization continues apace. The technology is proving to be a key lever in particular for subscription customers when making investment decisions and is thus helping to increase its popularity. A Speedmaster XL 106 press from the drupa 2016 generation will also be used at Lensing in Dortmund-Kley.
“Without extensive data expertise, Push to Stop would be unthinkable and is vital for our subscription model. We can now also see how Heidelberg can use this expertise to generate new business at the point of sale. Yet the customer, too, benefits from enhanced performance and much greater competitiveness,” says Hermann.
