The Third Balkan Print Forum meeting under the patronage of manroland AG took place on 23rd of October at the impressive Rahmi Koc Industrial Museum in Istanbul, Turkey. Invited were representatives of the National Printers Federations of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey; specialists, experts and managers from these countries; local and trade press. The main intention was to discuss further trends in the printing and media industry and outlooks for the future, as well as with the support of manroland AG, the patron of the Balkan Print Forum to start a programme for joint activities and mutual support.

More than 80 specialists, experts and managers from printing federations and companies in Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Turkey attended the Forum. Among the participants were also manroland’s customers as well as journalists from the local and Balkan countries trade press. BASEV, the Printing Industry Educational Foundation of Turkey, MAN Ferrostaal A.S, Turkey and manroland AG, Germany hosted the Third Balkan Print Forum. Professional speakers from manroland AG, Intergraf and some Turkish companies made their presentations at the Forum under the event motto “Development of the European Printing Industry and New Chances and Challenges for the Balkan Region”.

The new Balkan Print Forum Logo was introduced on the Forum. The participants agreed to participate actively in the following mutual activities of the Balkan Print Forum: publishing a newsletter of the Forum, performing of meetings for trade press representatives, establishing contacts to Technical schools and Universities of applied sciences in the Balkan countries and in Germany‏, supporting each other in the participation of educational and other programmes of the European Union.

Thomas Hauser, Vice President Corporate Marketing & Communications, manroland AG, presented the Perspective Print 2020. He gave an overview of the European and the Balkan printing industries. “From manroland’s point of view the situation on the Balkan print market is rather good – this is a growing area and a growing industry.” In his speech Thomas Hauser informed about the new technologies and new solutions developed to meet the growing demands of the customers. He pointed out that the new brand of manroland does express the company’s ambition to be reliable, determined, groundbreaking, and inspirational. That means, the machine producer acts as a high performance business partner in the industry. The audience was impressed of Mr. Hauser’s views on the development of the printing industry in Europe and Eastern Europe in particular.

Kemal Özkirim, Marketing Manager, Kartonsan, presented his company and informed about the cardboard market in Turkey. “Packaging design meets with paper” was the presentation title of the industrial designer Orhan Irmak. Süleyman Ertem, representing KASAD (Carton Board Packaging Manufacturers Association in Turkey) & ECMA (European Carton Makers Association), spoke about new trends in carton packaging. In her speech “Competitiveness of the European Graphic Industry – Current Situation and Future Actions at EU Level” Beatrice Klose, Secretary General of Intergraf, analysed the general economic situation of Europe and presented interesting facts and figures about Europe’s Printing Industry. Ms. Klose revealed the challenges of the EU Printing Industry and the current initiatives of the Confederation.

On the 24th of October the foreign guests had the possibility to visit the Dogan Printing Center and the Gül Matbaacilik printing house in Istanbul.
Hamil Alnıaçık, general manager of the Dogan Printing Center, personally welcomed the colleagues from the Balkan Print Forum. The modern newspaper printing centre is the biggest in Turkey. It produces the Hürriyet plus 8 more daily newspapers. High quality products are printed on two identical Colorman presses from manroland installed in 2000 and 2001. The facility has a continuous production in 365 days a year with a daily output of about 2,5 million copies. The daily paper consumption is about 400 tons.
The two Roland 900 (5+Lack und 6+Lack) machines production at the Gül Matbaacilik printing house for food packaging draw the attention of the visitors.