Josh Romberg · President · MBO North America · PRINTING United 2025

At Printing United 2025 in Orlando, Morten B. Reitoft from INKISH sits down with his good friend Josh Romberg from MBO on the third day of the show. They both agree that this time, the conversation should dig deeper—no soft questions, just a real discussion about the market, the challenges, and the opportunities. Josh begins by describing MBO’s long history. The company’s roots are in commercial sheet folding, going back to the 1960s and continuing through the early 2000s with a strong focus on buckle folding, combi folding, and pharmaceutical folding. Around 2010 to 2015, especially in the United States, MBO shifted its focus toward the roll-fed finishing business. Today, roll-fed solutions lead their business in the U.S., complemented by rotary die-cutting with Bograma, the pharmaceutical and specialty folding division H+H, and MBO’s commercial folding machines. The system on display behind them represents MBO’s newest roll-fed finishing line, featuring zero-speed splicing, rotary cutting, die-cutting technology, dynamic perforating and scoring, and MBO’s signature folding integration. Morten then challenges Josh with a question: “The technology is amazing, but I can’t help thinking—you could sell more. Why don’t you?” Josh smiles. “It’s a fair question. We have one of the most talented sales and service teams in the industry. For us, it’s not just about volume—it’s about enhancing value for the customer. We punch above our weight in roll-fed finishing. The goal is efficiency, enhancement, and creating more value.” He adds that MBO continually expands its offering with modules and add-ons, such as flood and spot coating, designed to help customers increase both value and revenue. Morten presses further, asking about the challenge of profitability and scale in such a competitive space. Josh explains, “We differentiate on product quality. Our systems are industrial-grade, high-speed, and high-productivity. We don’t consider ourselves a commodity player. Modularity is key—you can add or remove components as needed. That makes it easier for customers and OEM partners to grow and evolve with their markets.” Morten accepts the answer but pushes the conversation toward competition. “Most roll-fed OEMs, whether EMT, Tecnau, or Hunkeler, come from the transactional printing space. You come from offset and book production. What makes your approach different?” Josh explains that MBO approaches the market from the opposite direction. “Most competitors come from transactional print and are trying to move into commercial. We come from commercial and are moving into digital. We bring the industrial quality of web and sheetfed offset into this space.” He then breaks down MBO’s philosophy of automation. “There are two kinds of automation: software automation and process automation through step removal. The transactional model takes a roll, cuts it, stacks it, and moves it to binding. We eliminate those steps. We aim to go from roll to finished product, minimizing human touchpoints, reducing errors, increasing throughput, and boosting customer profitability.” Morten agrees, calling it a perfect answer. He then recalls seeing MBO at the Hunkeler Innovationdays and asks why he didn’t see a full MBO end-to-end setup there. Josh explains, “Our end-to-end solutions aren’t one-size-fits-all. Between roll and sheet, there’s a lot of flexibility. We can add a perforator, a plow fold, or a merge unit depending on the job. The modularity means a setup can change completely from shift to shift or job to job. That’s the real value—adaptability.” He continues, “Commercial printers today might be book printers one day, postcard printers the next, and mailers after that. Our systems adapt instantly with minor changes. That’s our strength. An MBO end-to-end solution could easily be three times the size of this booth depending on complexity. We offer breadth, flexibility, and scalability that fit how modern printers actually work.” As the conversation wraps up, Morten thanks Josh for the honest answers and insights. Josh laughs, shaking his hand, “Good deal, Morten. Always appreciate the tough questions.”