中文Heidelberger Druckmaschinen has opened the doors of its new Print Media Center Americas — branded “Home of Print” — in Marietta, Georgia. The purpose-built facility marks a milestone in Heidelberg’s transformation journey and its commitment to customer success and long-term growth across North America. With a showroom and a training centre under one roof, the site is designed as a hub for live demonstrations, hands-on education and industry engagement.
More than 200 customers, partners, trade-media representatives and Heidelberg employees gathered for a two-day grand-opening celebration. The event balanced heritage — Heidelberg’s long history in print — with a clear-eyed view of where the industry is heading. A panel of printing leaders shared how Heidelberg technology helped transform their people, processes and equipment for long-term market leadership.
Clarence Penge, president of Heidelberg USA, framed the opening in cultural terms. “Print Media Center Americas — Home of Print represents much more than a new building,” he said. “It reflects a new Heidelberg and a new way of thinking centred around collaboration.” By co-locating people, expertise and technology, Penge argued, the company can support customers more effectively today and into the future.
The new showroom hosted live demonstrations of Heidelberg’s latest equipment, including the Jetfire 50 and the Speedmaster XL 106, alongside educational sessions spanning the full portfolio. Facility tours gave visitors a behind-the-scenes look at the service and operations area engineered to tighten coordination among internal support teams.
A major highlight was the training centre, equipped with press modules, a fully operational Speedmaster XL 106 and finishing equipment. Reinforcing Heidelberg’s workforce-development commitment, the centre anchors the company’s apprenticeship programme and supports application development and professional training to build the next generation of print professionals. Beginning this fall, Heidelberg will run instructor-led operator training and maintenance classes to help printers lift productivity and navigate the industry’s future.
The event also produced concrete commercial wins. Heidelberg announced the first North American Jetfire 50 order with CJ Graphics in Canada, and secured the first US Jetfire 50 sale with Lake County Press of Waukegan, Illinois. “The new Jetfire orders demonstrate the growing demand for digital printing solutions across North America,” Penge noted, pointing to printers seeking agility for shorter runs, personalisation and faster turnarounds.
Customer voices reinforced the message. Mark Mills of Spectrum Packaging described how a first Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106 transformed the business after a move into packaging roughly a decade ago. Jay Mandarino of CJ Graphics praised the Jetfire 50’s print quality and its seamless connection to Prinect workflow automation.
Together with Heidelberg’s offset technology and Prinect workflow, the Jetfire 50 forms a connected hybrid production ecosystem — a recurring theme of the opening. For Heidelberg, the Georgia “Home of Print” is both a showcase and a statement: the company intends to be the partner printers turn to for equipment, training and the digital thread that ties production together.
Source: Labels & Labeling (Heidelberg opens Print Media Center Americas, 09 October 2026).
The opening fits Heidelberg’s broader reinvention. Once principally a press manufacturer, the company has spent years repositioning as a solutions and services partner — selling not just machines but the workflow, automation, training and financing that surround them. Demonstration and training centres have become central to that story, with similar flagship sites elsewhere anchoring customer relationships and letting prospects see integrated production rather than isolated equipment.
The Jetfire 50 is the commercial centrepiece. Heidelberg’s digital push has been watched closely by an industry weighing hybrid models that blend offset economics with digital agility. Early North American orders — one in Canada, one in the US — are small in number but symbolically important: they show the connected ecosystem message is converting, not just resonating. Against rivals such as HP Indigo and Landa, Heidelberg leans on its offset heritage and Prinect workflow to argue for a single, integrated production environment rather than siloed digital islands.
For the region, the Georgia centre also addresses a practical need: skilled-operator development. As experienced press crews retire and shorter-run, automated workflows demand new competencies, a dedicated training hub with live equipment helps secure the talent pipeline. Heidelberg’s apprenticeship tie-in is as much about protecting its own installed base as about industry citizenship.
Ultimately, “Home of Print” is both showroom and statement of intent. It tells North American printers that Heidelberg intends to be the partner for the entire production thread — equipment, education and the digital glue that binds them.
What makes the Georgia opening noteworthy is its timing. As North American printers weigh post-pandemic capital plans, a flagship centre that lets them touch the technology before buying reduces perceived risk. Heidelberg is effectively turning demonstration into a sales and retention engine. If the Jetfire 50 order momentum continues, the “Home of Print” will be remembered as the moment Heidelberg’s digital-and-offset hybrid story stopped being a presentation and started becoming a pipeline.
