Schreier described the decision by RWE to sell its stake in Heidelberg as a "fantastic gift from our main shareholder for Drupa.... RWE made us free".
He said the shares would be bought by "worldwide investors in promising companies, and that's what we think Heidelberg is."
"Yes, I bought some too - they are at a nice level now," he added.
While Drupa 2000 was the "top of the top of the top" of the market, the mood at Drupa 2004 was "very different because we are coming out of a recession", although he believed the show was happening "at the right moment" in the light of worldwide economies overall.
He touched briefly on the fundamental restructuring of Heidelberg, which has seen the group retrench in order for focus on its core sheetfed market. He described digital as "too expensive - we couldn't widen our range to get a major role", and said the decision to launch into newspaper presses had been at the wrong time: "Five years earlier would have been perfect. We had the right product but couldn't sell it because the market collapsed."
The negotiations regarding the sale of the web division to Goss are ongoing and the deal will not be finalised during Drupa.
"Heidelberg will be a different company after and at Drupa," Schreier stated. "Our turnover will be less than expected some years ago, but we will be more healthy and more focused."
As revealed on printweek.com yesterday, Heidelberg has unveiled its next-generation Speedmaster XL 105 at Drupa, along with a new modular laser imaging head that will become the standard across the firm's platesetters and direct imaging presses over the next year and a half. It is used in the new Suprasetter platesetter range, with Westdale Press set to become the first UK user of the new device.
The introduction of the new imaging head signals the beginning of the end of Heidelberg's current OEM arrangements with Screen, Presstek and Creo, Heidelberg is currently Presstek's biggest customer.
Heidelberg UK managing director George Clarke was also upbeat, and said the firm had more genuinely new and innovative products to display than ever before.
Story by Jo Francis at Drupa
