Schreier described the decision by RWE, ann-ounced last week, 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".

While Drupa 2000 was the "top of the top of the top" of the market, he said 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.

He touched briefly on the fundamental restructuring of Heidelberg, which has seen the group retrench in order to focus on its core sheetfed market.

He described digital as "too expensive" and said the decision to launch into newspaper presses had been at the wrong time: "Five years earlier would have been perfect."

Negotiations regarding the sale of the web division to Goss were ongoing and the deal will not be finalised during Drupa, he said.

As revealed on printweek.com last week, 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 18 months. Westdale Press set to become the first UK user of the 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.

Story by Jo Francis