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Heidelberger Drück is a mechanical engineering firm headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany. Established in 1850, this company specialises in printing presses, printing software and computer-to-plate imaging technology. The firm is considered the number-one manufacturer of offset printing presses.

The company is also widely regarded for its Original Heidelberg Platen Press, known in the sector as the ‘Windmill’, which boasted the first power-driven paper feed mechanism.

More recently, Heidelberg teamed up with Ricoh in 2011 to become a long-term partner and distributor of the Japanese brand’s digital colour press, as well as its full suite of offset press products. In 2014, it also acquired Gallus Holding, which has helped enhance Heidelberger Drück’s in-house label printing and post-press production capabilities.

It’s been a challenging story for the Heidelberger Drück share price in recent decades. The bearish nature of Heidelberger Drück shares is symptomatic of the printing industry as a whole, which has struggled significantly, resulting in a string of job and pay cuts in recent times.

In January 2001, the Heidelberger Drück share price was as high as €43.61, but it plunged rapidly throughout 2002 to lows of €9.81 in March 2003. This was followed by a modest rally to highs of €25.49 in May 2006, although the global financial crisis in 2008 resulted in a huge downturn for Heidelberger Drück and the rest of the printing industry.

Since then, the cost of Heidelberger Drück shares has floated no higher than €5 per share. Between 2017 and 2022, the Heidelberger Drück share price fell by almost 44%. Like so many other equities, the price of Heidelberger Drück shares rallied in 2021 following the end of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. However, it closed 2022 in a bearish fashion, available at a low of €1.48 in December.

Although Heidelberger Drück is one of the oldest firms within the global printing industry today, there are several notable competitors for Heidelberger Drück to contend with. For example, Sign-Zone, Inc. is one of the fastest-growing private firms in the US, but is yet to go public.

Dutch firm DGB Group are one of the only competitors of Heidelberger Drück to go public. The company, formerly known as Verenigde Nederlandse Compagnie, are very active in the printing services sector. Nevertheless, there are few in the printing industry that can compete with the heritage of Heidelberger Drück. Heidelberger generates annual revenues of approximately $2.3bn and carries an estimated worth of more than $513m.