In December last year, press manufacturer KBA announced that it would diversify "into emerging areas to create sustainable successful business activities" that would "complement its press manufacturing tradition". Dissect this rather complicated sentence and the message is quite simple: diversification away from its core offset presses business is on the agenda.

And KBA is not alone. Other offset press manufacturers seem to be going down a similar route, with recent reports suggesting that both Manroland and Heidelberg are eyeing up new markets. Just before Christmas, Manroland was granted its 709th patent for an "inkjet printing apparatus", sparking speculation that it was about to move into the digital wide-format market. Meanwhile, press reports in Germany have suggested that Heidelberg is actively seeking a partner for a digital print operation, though the German giant has yet to comment and there would be a certain irony if it did return to the digital arena - nearly six years ago Heidelberg sold its 50% stake in Nexpress to Kodak.

If these rumours are true, it would signal the start of an interesting trend. If three of the major offset press manufacturers are looking at other ways of generating money, this suggests that the offset press market will not bringing in as much cash as it used to, even after the recession. Indeed, offset sales are declining. But in looking to diversify, there is a risk manufacturers could take their eye off their core business.

That said, with Ipex looming, there are no signs that offset press manufacturers are giving up entirely, with manufacturers focusing on improving their press offering.

In the sheetfed sector, efforts in the past few years have focused on shaving makeready times through improved automation. Much of the technology, such as automatic plate changing, started off in the web offset sector and has found its way into sheetfed. The developments have saved printers huge amounts of time and, in turn, money.

So rather than an abandonment of the core offering, it would appear that the intention is addition, not replacement.

 Stable foundation
"We need to make sure that we find a stable and solid platform for our business," says KBA UK managing director Christian Knapp. "Manufacturing printing presses will be the main and most important area for KBA, but the group's directors are looking outside the core market. KBA has to adapt and change."

There's nothing new about press manufacturers having other divisions away from print. Japanese company Ryobi started off as a manufacturer of plastic die cast products in 1954 - it wasn't until 1964 that it started to make offset printing presses. Today, the group's offering includes power tools and builder's hardware.

For KBA, there are four areas that it's planning to diversify into: packaging technology, digital, water and, perhaps surprisingly, solar technology.

The latter could not be further removed from the press hall, but KBA has been quietly establishing itself for a while. The group's CleanAir division has linked up with the German Aerospace Centre in Stuttgart to develop a solar tower power plant, bringing its expertise in "heat accumulators" for air-purification plants to the table. The technology has been incorporated into a solar-powered generating plant in Jülich, Germany, which is the subject of a series of long-term research programmes to test and develop high-temperature heat storage media for solar tower power plants.
"Some of the components have been manufactured by KBA," explains Knapp. "It's an area we've been working on for some time."

Advanced technology
The Jülich site has more than 2,000 movable mirrors to follow the path of the sun and concentrate the solar radiation onto a 22m2 receiver at the top of a 60m-high tower. At the centre is a pressureless accumulator that has a capacity of more than 1,000megawatts and can be used for different types of storage. It's extremely clever and high-tech stuff.

However, getting back to more familiar territory, the most telling move, and the one that perhaps gives an indication of the direction print is heading as whole, is KBA's push into digital in order to take advantage of the ever developing inkjet market.

"Our expertise is in high speed and accuracy," explains Knapp. "It's about how we can best get the image onto the paper. We are currently looking at inkjet and we're likely to focus on wide-format applications first. It's a segment where we can work in partnership with someone. However, inkjet will not replace litho. Inkjet is growing, but it is a complementary technology. Litho still has a lot of life in it yet."

Manroland is not going to venture too far from its core business. But it's also likely to muscle into the same inkjet arena as KBA. Its "inkjet printing apparatus"

patent was registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office and came as no surprise to industry experts who predicted the move of litho manufacturers into digital technology some time ago. Manroland wouldn't directly comment on the content of the patent, but it did confess that it wants to expand its business into emerging markets.

"We're looking at how we can apply our core competencies to other areas and we're intensively addressing these fundamental questions in our strategic process," says Eva Doppler, head of marketing communications at Manroland. "We still have some blank spots regionally and in our product portfolio. Among other things, we're looking for cooperation in digital printing. Geographically, we believe that Eastern Europe, Brazil, India, various countries in Africa and China will show healthy growth in the coming years."

What's driving Manroland's strategy is an acknowledgment that the printing industry is going through a rapid restructure and, in order to survive, the company has to adapt accordingly. "This development demands and also encourages a new pioneering spirit, both within our company and the industry as a whole," adds Doppler.

At Heidelberg, a list of alternative markets it believes are worth investment has been drawn up, which includes the packaging sector through its Linoprint high-speed inkjet technology that can be incorporated into packaging press or post-press lines and standalone DriveLine digital presses. It believes this technology is "efficient and cost-effective, with small and medium-sized runs down to a batch size of one".

Revolutionary print
But perhaps one of the most interesting sectors that Heidelberg has set its sights on is the organic electronic sector. This is essentially the printing of electronics and the theory is that soon it will be possible to print low-cost electronic components on flexible substrates. Researchers from the company, alongside BASF and Darmstadt Technical University, claim to be "revolutionising printing technology".  It's a complex market and Heidelberg anticipates that the first printed results will be presented in the next three years.

Print is no stranger to the electronic markets. In 2007, Cambridge-based Xaar's inkjet printheads were used in a machine to make LCD screens. And back in 2006, it linked up with Swedish company Thin Film Electronics to produce the world's first printed random access memory.

Elsewhere, Heidelberg is also keen to stake a claim for the consumables market - it wants to double sales in a sector it currently has 4% share in - and there's also its global consultancy business, which it aims to expand.

All this expansion into new markets could lead some to surmise that the manufacturer's traditional offset press products will be neglected.

"That's not the case at all - our focus does not shift," counters KBA's Knapp. "If anything, our focus is even more on the development of the printing press. But the directors of KBA believe that in addition we have to come up with new concepts. We have the cash available and the right mindset - once the board sees the opportunity it will go for it."

With the offset market slowing, it makes sense for the big hitters in the sector to eye-up new opportunities, whether it's in print orientated fields such as digital, or completely new fields such as solar energy. What the likes of Heidelberg, Manroland and KBA have recognised is that the technology they've developed over the years can be of huge benefit to a raft of new markets.

As Manroland's Doppler concludes: "Print is a high-tech industry. Gutenberg would be amazed if he could see what his idea has developed into - and it's not finished yet."