If printing is a bellwether for the economy in general, is Heidelberg a bellwether for our industry?

Last week's restructuring news from the press giant should have come as little surprise. The company pretty much telegraphed its intentions in the statement it made in early May, and the subsequent timing in announcing the detail of its plans after drupa and before its AGM on 18 July will have been well planned.

No company would want to go into a showcase event like drupa on the back of a major restructuring announcement - going into it on the back of a profits warning was quite enough of a potential downer. In fact, prior to drupa I was feeling quite depressed. The international business press had perked up for their quadrennial flush of interest in print media, and the resulting reports were all gloom, gloom, gloom.

Then we arrived in Dusseldorf, the sun was shining, and everyone seemed to be walking around with a spring in their step. It was like being in topsy-turvy land.

The Heidelberg halls were, as ever, awesome. I can only begin to imagine how much the group invested in its drupa presence - informed guesstimates put it at the 45-50 million euro mark. Heidelberg won't say, but we can be sure it was A LOT.

At one point I was accosted by a drupa attendee who proceeded to rave on at some length about big H's plush floorcovering. "Have you seen the quality of the carpet they've got in there? It's pure wool you know. In fact it's better than what I've got at home". And so it was.

Thinking about it, it must be nigh on impossible for Heidelberg to scale back its drupa activities without causing some sort of seismic ruction.

"Now we don't have web or digital, why don't we just take hall one this year?" Unthinkable.

"We'll can the customer dinners". Not a chance.

And actually, who's to say they would even want to? As an exercise in cementing the position of a market-leading brand, Heidelberg puts on a masterclass in Düsseldorf. Watching the scrum of visitors queuing to buy (yes, buy) Heidelberg-branded merchandise was an illustration of how powerfully - and aspirationally - the company connects with its customers. That has been hard won and Heidelberg's management won't jeopardise it in the cause of short-term cost-cutting.

But the fact remains that the going is tough for the group, and with the share price sinking to a 52-week low of just over 10 euros this week, the management team can't be expecting an easy ride at the AGM. However, to my mind the more significant date is going to be 5 August, when we'll learn if the "cautious optimism" voiced at drupa has translated into a sufficient number of firm orders.

Whether Heidelberg is a bellwether for the industry overall is a moot point. Perhaps it's more accurate to view it as a bellwether for the heavy metal side of the business, and our press suppliers could find themselves squeezed by both the economic downturn, and by customers holding off on their investments while they wait to see whether inkjet really can do what it promises in providing a viable alternative to offset.