Mirko Kern, CEO talks about his PrintPack experience, importance of Indian market for manroland, future plans and more.
Mr.Mirko Kern CEO, manroland Sheetfed inherited a debt ridden company when he took over as CEO. After the turmoil, Mirko sees the positive trend and looks forward to a couple of years to be back in black figures. “We have lots of positive feedback from the various markets and a pleasingly good start into 2025,” he states.
After being taken over by Langley in 2024, there have been market perceptions that manroland undertook some cost cutting initiatives, which Mirko refutes and refines by saying, “Besides the rumours, of course the restructuring was done in 2023/2024. Now we have the right structure and thankfully, the painful process is over. On the positive side, we have already gone through the process and adapted our capacities to the market, something that others still have to do on a large scale.”
It’s not a secret that the Chinese market is not only one of the most important markets for manroland today, but it also constitutes around 40 per cent of their business. Despite that, manroland has no plan to manufacture in China. “Though our competition is doing so, we will not produce our high quality litho machines in China, since we already have a complete production with the entire value chain in Offenbach with the right set-up in terms of capacity and organization including our R&D,” informs Mirko.
manroland’s World Evolution Tour has already passed through China, Japan, Poland, Belgium, Germany, Brazil and India to be followed by Mexico, the UK and other EU countries. And then it will also participate in China Print in May.
“The idea of world tour is to visit a country and meet our customers with our complete team from HQ – from R&D, service, product management, sales etc. Normally we have presentation and live demos at customer sites. In India we used the exhibition combined with customers via live stream. And this was very successful, I’m more than happy with the results and feedback,” elaborates Mirko.
Mr.Mirko Kern climbed the corporate ladder from joining as an apprentice to today the CEO of the company. He says his achievements with flying colours have been possible because of his ambition and will, paired with motivation and passion for his work. “And of course you always need people to support you. I was lucky enough to have these,” declares Mirko.
Mirko feels very proud and humble to head the same company where he started as an apprentice. “I will do everything in my power to continue on the path of success for manroland,” proudly states Mirko.
Praising manroland Sheetfed India, he says, “I’m very proud to have such a motivated and ambitious team in India. It was a pleasure to see how hard they have worked for the PrintPack and what they have achieved. Success only comes with the right team and we certainly have that here. In general the Indian market is one of our most important future markets. We see great opportunities here. And it is a growing market.”
Bernard Langley in his 2024 X’mas wishes to shareholders made a point about the ROI from a show like drupe. When asked whether it means an end of the road for manroland Sheetfed at drupa in the future, Mirko counters, “Of course not! This doesn’t mean the end for trade fairs such as drupa, PrintPack or China Print. It is important to differentiate between participation and non-participation, or the extent of participation and the result. I think you have to think carefully about whether you still need to set up and showcase printing presses at a trade fair; this costs a lot. I think all printers know that we build presses that print. So I have to ask myself “what I want to show or prove with the machine at the trade fair?” But to be present and have technical discussion can be helpful.”
manroland has added more products in the kitty of their Indian arm – like Kolbus & Zechini for the Indian market. Mirko hints that they could add more such names to their portfolio.
He concludes by saying a few words of appreciation regarding PrintPack, “It was a pleasure to be able to talk to so many customers at the PrintPack India 2025, as it was on my last visit. The Indian market is developing very positively and is full of dynamism. I am glad and proud that manroland can be a part of it. I am already looking forward to my next visit.”
