Expect a new small single-width press from manroland next year as the German press giant extends its range to meet market trends.

But unlike the company’s Cromoman designs, it won’t be made in Germany.

Speaking at the ASEAN Newspaper Printers conference in Penang, Malaysia, last week, Gerald Benz, sales deputy vice president of manroland Web Systems, disclosed the “very price competitive” press will be built in Asia.

“We are looking at the market in India, China and southeast Asia, and plan to have it ready by mid next year,” Benz says.

“It will be German made, Asian built.”

The company has been using relationship with US single-width press maker Tensor to expand its portfolio. Countries targeted by the arrangement included Central and South America, Mexico, South Africa and Canada, as well as southeast Asia, and later also the USA.

In an earlier relationship, now dissolved, manroland sold Manugraph products outside of North America, while Manugraph made a version of manroland’s Uniset two-around single-width press for the Indian market. Both brands had been sold in Australia by agent Ferrostaal until 2009, an arrangement which delivered a multi-site press order from APN.

Despite some substantial installations around the world, sales of manroland’s single-width Cromoman – originally built in Plauen, Germany, like its Uniset stablemate – had fallen off against fierce international competition, although the design has evolved to deliver a double-width 4x1 version (pictured) which has proved popular in Indian markets.