Two Canadian companies – Sanden Machine of Cambridge, ON, and RDP Marathon of Laval, QC – have formed a strategic alliance to serve the commercial, forms, direct mail, label, and packaging markets in Canada, the USA, and Mexico. The new entity is called Sanden-Marathon. Both companies are manufacturers of web offset presses.

“With the growing trend for digital and paperless in traditional markets, and new substrates emerging in packaging, the whole industry has an opportunity to reinvent itself. This alliance accomplishes this and positions us to service the present and future needs of our customers,” says Rosalee Sanden-Munch, president of Sanden Machine.

“Together we are well poised to draw on over 70 years of combined web press expertise and continue to provide a reliable, durable and precision product, while being able to respond to the business and technical challenges of an evolving market,” adds Eric Short, president of RDP Marathon

Sanden-Marathon begins immediately to jointly market and support presses for the industry, as well as to introduce innovative products to the NAFTA market.

Concurrent with this announcement, Sanden-Marathon has entered into an agreement with Edelmann Graphics, Beerfelden, Germany, to be the exclusive distributor of the STAR-Print (Sleeve Technology Advanced Rotation) press for the NAFTA packaging and label markets.

“This agreement with Sanden-Marathon allows us to move into the North American packaging market with a partner who has, through a wide customer base and strong technical foundation, the ability to understand and deliver to the customer’s needs,” says Julius Friedrich, managing director of Edelmann Graphics.

Recently launched in Europe, the STAR-Print press offers “open platform” architecture with towers that accept carbon fiber sleeve inserts for offset, flexo, gravure and screen printing.