Well ahead of the announced September end of its current agreement, manroland has launched its new fully-owned market organisation for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific area. The move continues intensive efforts on regional expansion in growth markets, which the company says is a fundamental cornerstone of its strategic alignment. The new entity, manroland Australasia – fully-owned by manroland AG – was introduced at PacPrint and took responsibility for sales and services for the entire manroland product range in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific region, from June 1. The product range is now offered ‘directly from source’ and includes sheetfed and web presses and a wide range of services under the printservices, printcom, printnet and printadvice brands. manroland Australasia has opened new offices in Sydney and Melbourne, with the initial focus on service for its existing customers. The manroland product and service portfolio, which was offered by MAN Ferrostaal (sales and services) and Web Services Australia (webfed service), is now bundled in the new manroland Australasia organisation. Service staff have already been recruited the recruitment of new staff is continuing. At PacPrint, manroland Australasia focused on ‘value added printing’, pursuing a trend in Australia and New Zealand towards customised configurations for a wide variety of printing options and new business models.