DIGOTEX = Bankrupt - Sad News for Our Industry ...

Gilligan

__________________
"you don't need a hook for the worms to dance."

californiadreamin

It is unfortunate!
Mr. Mayrhofer has been a real blessing to the industry.
He has worked hard for many years. His contributions have helped many, and
Forced or inspired his competition to build better machines. His age and
Health will define his future,as it will with some of us. We can also learn that
Nothing stays the same. Mark my words, the industry will and is going through
Major change. There will be more notices like this.
Winston
,

Printwizard

Sad, and I couldn't agree more. Competition breeds innovation, unfortunately their must be enough market and money flow to allow competition. Without this any industry suffers complacency without being driven by competition. If you also look around at the key names and drivers, some of them stepped up to the plate quite some time ago, and we hear little of youth and new people coming through as design engineers with passion and new thoughts utilising newer manufacturing methods or componentry and with fire in their belly to drive forward the industry again.

As printers we are after ever increasing numbers and increases in Quality, faced with more change-outs, shorter run sizes, quicker lead-times, tight margins, and seeking production efficiencies, reductions in waste, etc... All of which is dependant on machinery design, innovation and production. It is an evolve or fail world. What was proven 20 years ago wouldnt last as a business model now for long at all, and I would suggest that will always be the case.

Unfortunately design, changes, experiments and failures all come at a cost and for the manufacturer this is hard when their volume is down and cashflows tight and they in turn will also be looking more how to retain their core skilled staff and tighten their own boats, rather than taking on fresh young blood and investing in developing new features and lines.

Ultimately this is not unique to any one industry or country. It does tend to be the older guys who go, and choose retirement over battling on. What we loose is experience to pass onto others. I just hope for the sake of everyone that as many as possible can ride out the economy. Which in my opinion is much harder in Europe. Although they dont have any big shops the size of mnr I still believe they add more than their weight in terms of development regardless the fact they may never have built as many machines.

eetherman

Prime example of why innovation and technology along with inflation and unstable markets are going flip our industry upside down, in the upcoming years. The machines are only a minor factor in what we are experiencing. Don't get me wrong, the local stuff will always be there but what if you had larger major markets to compete with?