Goss CEO Brown: We're Keeping Mainstream Press and Post-Press Products

By: Mark Fitzgerald Goss International is keeping Heidelberg's Mainstream press and its post-press line of products, CEO Bob Brown told production executives at Thursday's meeting of the International Newspaper Group (ING) in Milwaukee.

"I want to repeat--and say emphatically--that Goss is committed to the success of the Mainstream line," Brown said. "We stand behind Heidelberg's web press [line] and the post-press products as well."

Speaking to a newspaper industry group for the first time since Goss' Aug. 6 acquisition of Heidelberg's web press and U.S. post-press business, Brown reassured the standing-room-only audience of his company's commitment to newspapers. He also said that the acquisition was a matter of eat or be eaten in a time of supplier consolidation.

"Goss would either become a victim of the process or make an aggressive decision that we would remain a leader in this industry," he said. The acquisition was "the answer," he added, to the strategic choices facing an historic company that in recent years closed its U.S. manufacturing facilities, went twice into bankruptcy reorganization and emerged with a new name.

"People have asked me, 'Why not wait [on the acquisition]?'" Brown said. "The answer is, markets don't wait."

Brown told ING that the cultures of the two companies, which are both multinational manufacturers that date back to the 1880s, are very similar--but that the "overlaps are minimal" in their product lines. Pressed to discuss what press models Goss might drop, Brown hinted that Heidelberg's Mercury press would probably be dropped in favor of Goss' Community, the best-selling printing press ever. "The Community is a very strong product line," he said. "We're very happy with that product line."

A decision on consolidating product lines will likely be made in the next 90 days, he said.

Heidelberg's sales organization will continue to operate in much of the globe, Brown said. Heidelberg will have sales responsibility for Germany, Switzerland and most of Eastern Europe, as well as Mexico, Brazil, South Africa and South Korea, he said.