May 4, 2007

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen Aktiengesellschaft Corporate Communications Kurfuersten-Anlage 52 – 60 69115 Heidelberg Germany Phone +49 6221 92 5047 Fax +496221925069 www.heidelberg.com

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG celebrates 50th anniversary of Wiesloch-Walldorf plant • World’s largest and most state-of-the-art printing press factory

• Innovative production technologies for high-quality presses

• Hall 11 currently being built at a cost of 45 million euros for a new generation of extra-large format printing presses

The opening of the Wiesloch-Walldorf site in 1957 represents an important milestone

in the history of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg). There was no

longer sufficient space at the main plant in Heidelberg to produce large presses,

especially with the launch that same year of a new A3 format cylinder press – the

Original Heidelberg Zylinder. Since the plant opened, over one billion euros has been

invested in it. Today, the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant has a workforce of around 6,500 and covers an

area of 860,000 m² (9,250,000 sq ft), making this ultramodern printing press

production facility the world’s largest. The parts and components required are

manufactured at the Heidelberg sites in Amstetten, Brandenburg and Wiesloch-

Walldorf and by several hundred outside suppliers. All Heidelberg sheetfed offset

presses used by printers the world over are assembled at Wiesloch-Walldorf. Since

production started here, over 400,000 printing units have been built, and the plant is

still growing. A new hall is currently being built by Heidelberg at a cost of 45 million

euros to assemble a completely new generation of extra-large format presses from

September 2007. “This new project reinforces our position as world market leader in

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sheetfed offset printing,” stated Heidelberg Chairman Bernhard Schreier at the

groundbreaking ceremony in May 2006.

New out-of-town plant opened in 1957 Its unrestricted views of Heidelberg Castle and the introduction of the new A3 format

Original Heidelberg Zylinder led to the decision to build at Wiesloch-Walldorf. When

the economic miracle took hold in the early 1950s and more orders were placed with

Schnellpressenfabrik AG Heidelberg, as it was known at the time, it became clear

that the existing buildings in Heidelberg would not be able to cope for much longer.

Heidelberg City Council was also planning to build a grand new thoroughfare from

the station to the city center – with open views to Heidelberg Castle and the

surrounding hills. Schnellpressenfabrik had been intending to erect a five-story

building on its site, but the council plans threw a spanner in the works.

In 1956, Hubert H.A. Sternberg, Member of the Management Board at Heidelberg

from 1926 to 1972, purchased roughly 38 hectares of open land in Wiesloch, a site

on the Heidelberg-Bruchsal railway line from which oil was still being extracted at the

time. This turned out to be a move of rare entrepreneurial vision. Had Heidelberg not

had this large site in reserve, the company’s major investment plans in subsequent

decades would have been inconceivable.

Work at the site started in April 1956 with extensive drainage and pile foundations

seven meters deep. It was the largest building site in the south-western part of

Germany. Over 300 people were involved, including 80-man teams of masons, some

of whom also worked on Sundays. A total of around two miles of track, one mile of

telephone lines and one mile of pipes for compressed air were laid. Sternberg

planned the factory himself. He made numerous preliminary business trips to the

U.S. and took the American industrial construction concept as his model. This

allowed for adjustments to take into account different production methods, new

machinery and changing customer needs.

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The factory was completed in mid-1957. It consisted of two 251.5 m x 70 m (825 x

230 ft) production halls, a two-story administrative building and a 1,000-capacity

canteen. It also included a reception building, car parks and its very own station –

“Schnellpressenfabrik AG Heidelberg” – for staff and special trips to drupa, the

international trade show for printing and paper in Dusseldorf.

The relocation from Heidelberg to Wiesloch-Walldorf ran like clockwork. The trucks

rolled up and loaded up a workstation, while the operator removed his things from his

locker and took up exactly where he left off the following day in Wiesloch. In June

1957, assembly started in one of the production halls for the Original Heidelberg

Tiegel 26 cm x 38 cm (10.24 x 14.96 in) and 34 cm x 46 cm (13.39 x 18.11 in)

automatic platen letterpresses. In July 1957, the second production hall started

assembly of the new Original Heidelberg Zylinder 38 cm x 52 cm (14.96 x 20.47 in).

The administrative, research and development departments, the spare parts store

and, for the time being at least, the Original Heidelberg Zylinder 54 cm x 72 cm

(21.26 x 28.35 in) and part of the Tiegel production operations remained in

Heidelberg. The training workshop also relocated at a later stage.

A double celebration is twice as good There was a double celebration to mark the opening of the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant.

On July 5, 1957 there was a grand ceremony to which a total of 4,000 guests were

invited – including the mayor, construction companies involved in the project,

employees and their spouses, colleagues from Heidelberg and Geislingen and

retired staff. Guests raised their glasses three times to toast the opening of the plant,

the new Original Heidelberg Zylinder and the 30th anniversary of Hubert H.A.

Sternberg joining the company. Guests were suitably impressed by the size of the

halls with their bright, clearly laid out workstations and enjoyed the evening

entertainment provided by radio, TV and variety entertainers such as Hans-Joachim

Kulenkampff and Gerhard Wendland.

The official opening of the new Wiesloch-Walldorf plant was marked by an

international conference which took place from July 13-15, 1957 with around 300

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representatives from all over the world. Sternberg unveiled the new Original

Heidelberg Zylinder in its full glory and introduced the new sales and marketing

strategy. After a development process spanning eight years – including two years of

testing by customers – Sternberg drew back the curtain and revealed the Original

Heidelberg Zylinder with the words “Open Sesame”. The Heidelberg production

program now included four high-performance letterpresses in the most popular

formats – A3 and A2. The huge progress made by the company is demonstrated by

the following statistics. When Hubert H.A. Sternberg joined the management team in

1926, the company had around 300 employees. By 1957, this figure had increased

to 3,520 across the entire Heidelberg Group and sales had risen one hundred fold

over this period.

At the official opening of the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant, bronze plaques were put up

welcoming printers from around the world in various languages: “This factory was

built over a one-year period for printers the world over. Original Heidelberg presses

have become a byword for top performance, a reputation which this plant will uphold

and build on over the coming decades. On July 13, 1957, Hubert H.A. Sternberg officially opened the facilities he devised

and planned. Over 3,000 blue- and white-collar workers greeted the world’s printers,

who currently already have over 80,000 Heidelberg machines in operation.

Machines and assembly lines then sprang to life, operated by our skilled workers and

supervised by our foremen, supervisors and engineers. Their aim will always be to

provide printers with the best possible machines, knowing no boundaries, for the

further development of the graphic arts industry and thus for the benefit of mankind.”

The plant just keeps on growing Production expanded rapidly at the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant. In the next four years

alone, six additional halls were built.

In 1962, Heidelberg made the switch from letterpress to offset printing. The first

offset press was the Heidelberg KOR (Kleine Offset Rotation) for the 40 cm x 57 cm

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(15.75 x 22.44 in) format. Two-thirds of its components came from the standard

letterpress. The feeder, delivery and control elements were largely identical to those

of automatic cylinder letterpresses. During the switch to offset printing, the factory

was completely restructured and organized according to families of parts,

irrespective of press type.

Heidelberg was also keen to reflect these far-reaching changes in its name, and in

1967 Schnellpressenfabrik AG Heidelberg was renamed Heidelberger

Druckmaschinen AG.

Additional halls were needed following the introduction of further new products,

including the GTO single-color press for the A3 format in 1972 and the first

Speedmaster four-color press for the A2 format in 1974. The Heidelberg GTO, which

gave its name to an entire format class, enables high-quality small-format printing. At

the end of the 1970s, the series included single-, two- and four-color GTOs which

could also be converted to perfecting printing. The series is still made today and is

probably the most successful quality offset press series ever.

The Speedmaster series is a completely new press generation for multicolor and

perfecting printing at speeds of up to 11,000 sheets per hour. It has been developed

on an ongoing basis and to the present day provides a firm foundation for the

success of Heidelberg press business.

The central store was built in 1980. The manufacture of parts was switched to NC

(numerical control) machines and developed largely independently in cooperation

with Aachen University. For a time in the mid-1980s, Wiesloch-Walldorf accounted

for a third of all NC machines installed in Europe. Production investments were given

high priority at Heidelberg. The strategy was always to use the latest technology,

always to come out on top and to rationalize wherever possible. In the period

between 1950 and 1979 alone, Heidelberg invested over 450 million euros in new

production facilities.

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A magical milestone was passed in 1981 when sales revenues reached the

equivalent of 500 million euros (DM 1.03 billion). This was also the year the company

celebrated the delivery of the 300,000th Heidelberg press from the Wiesloch-

Walldorf plant.

In 1982, Heidelberg officially opened its new head office at company headquarters in

Heidelberg.

In 1985, the last Tiegel press left the production line. Heidelberg supplied a total of

165,000 presses of this type and they are still an essential part of many printshops,

primarily being used for tasks such as creasing, die-cutting and embossing. It was at

this point that the triumphal march of the Speedmaster series of sheetfed offset

presses started. In 1986, Heidelberg launched the Speedmaster CD 102, a

trendsetting press for large-format packaging printing.

Midway through 1985, the new foundry in Amstetten, in which Heidelberg had

invested over 450 million euros, was also officially opened. Amstetten is now a

competence center for casting and mainly manufactures large press components. It

is one of Europe’s most modern foundries as well as being one of the 15 largest, and

is also the biggest mechanical engineering foundry in Germany.

30th anniversary of the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant To mark the 30th anniversary of the Wiesloch-Walldorf site in 1987, the electronics

production hall and the current medium- and large-format assembly halls were

officially opened. There were now over 5,000 people working at the plant.

Production methods have been improved and refined on an ongoing basis to keep

ahead of the competition in terms of product quality and production technology. A

further demonstration of this competitive edge was the high level of automation – a

level unmatched anywhere else in the printing press industry. Computer-controlled

machining centers, driverless transport systems and an integrated logistics center

ensured flexible and cost-effective production. Over one thousand machine tools

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were used, including around six hundred highly flexible, programmable NC

machines. These one thousand machine tools produced three times the amount

achieved twelve years previously with one thousand four hundred. And almost half

the machines were less than five years old.

Between 1977 and 1987, over 250 million euros was invested in modernizing and

expanding the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant. During this period, the vertical range of

manufacture also rose as high as 80 percent, but it has now fallen to just under 40

percent due to the introduction of electronics in presses.

Production halls were increasingly being given over to office space, but in 1990 the

administrative functions and canteen were given a new home. The Research & Development Center at company headquarters in Heidelberg was

also officially opened that same year.

The data center at the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant opened in 1991 at the same time as

the gear production hall.

In 1992, Heidelberg started production at its plant in Brandenburg in which it had

invested 100 million euros. Brandenburg forms part of the Heidelberg manufacturing

network, producing assemblies and complex rotationally symmetrical and profiled

parts such as shafts and rollers.

Heidelberg launched the new Speedmaster SM 74 press for the 52 cm x 74 cm

(20.47 x 29.13 in) format in 1994, followed by the Speedmaster SM 52 for the

smaller A3 format in 1995 at drupa. 1995 also saw the launch of the Printmaster QM

46, a successful entry-level press.

A further important development in 1995 was the construction of the new training

center at the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant. Nearly 200 young people started their training

at this center on September 1, 2006. The proportion of trainees across the entire

Heidelberg manufacturing network is roughly six percent.

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In 1996, Heidelberg took over prepress and color management specialist Linotype-

Hell AG. While research and development work remain at the Kiel site, Suprasetter

platesetters have been assembled at the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant since 2004. Key

electronic components are manufactured at the adjacent electronics production

facility.

1999 saw the official opening of the World Logistics Center. Maximum availability of

machinery is a key success factor for printers in view of the fierce competition that

exists. For this very reason, Heidelberg maintains a close-knit global service

network. Customers can now obtain spare parts round the clock – within 24 hours in

Europe. A central computer with data from interim storage facilities calculates the

quickest way to supply all kinds of spare parts anywhere in the world.

In 2003, Heidelberg initiated the “High Performance Production HPP 2006” project at

the Wiesloch, Brandenburg and Amstetten production sites. This project continues

today in the form of the Heidelberg Production System (HPS). The aim is to use

people’s know-how for the effective design and ongoing improvement of production

processes. Key objectives are to keep unit labor costs competitive, boost productivity

and product quality and safeguard jobs at the site.

Heidelberg unveiled the Speedmaster XL 105 at drupa 2004, marking the world

premiere of a new series of printing presses for highly industrialized offset printing

that are capable of attaining speeds of 18,000 sheets per hour. As the first press in a

brand new peak performance class, the Speedmaster XL 105 sets new standards in

terms of productivity, quality and cost-effectiveness. Series production started at the

Wiesloch-Walldorf plant in April 2005.

In 2004, Heidelberg started assembly of the Suprasetter family of platesetters at the

Wiesloch-Walldorf plant. It was Heidelberg that developed the laser head used in

these platesetters.

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2006 saw the groundbreaking ceremony for the assembly hall for the new “extra-

large format” Speedmaster XL 142 and XL 162 presses.

The hall being erected measures 35,000 m² (377,000 sq ft) – roughly equivalent to

the size of five soccer fields. Heidelberg is investing around 45 million euros in this

hall –yet another major investment at the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant. Only Wiesloch-

Walldorf has the comprehensive know-how, the innovative production processes and

the extremely well-trained staff required to achieve the company’s ambitious goal.

Assembly is scheduled to start in September 2007 to coincide with the 50th

anniversary of the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant.

Further information on Heidelberg can be found at www.heidelberg.com.

For further information, please contact: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG

Corporate Communications

Business press Thomas Fichtl Phone: +49 6221 92 4747 Fax: +49 6221 92 5069 E-mail: thomas.fichtl@heidelberg.com

Trade Press Hilde Weisser Phone: +49 6221 92 5066 Fax: +49 6221 92 5069 E-mail: hilde.weisser@heidelberg.com

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: Dr. Mark Wössner Vorstand: Bernhard Schreier, Vorsitzender · Dirk Kaliebe · Dr. Jürgen Rautert Sitz der Gesellschaft: Heidelberg · Amtsgericht Mannheim - Registergericht - HRB 330004 · USt.-IdNr. DE 143455661

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