Longtime Konica Minolta head of production print George Fryer has switched to Ricoh to take up a leading role at the competing manufacturer.

Fryer has already begun his new job yesterday as national manager of commercial sales, working out of Ricoh’s Sydney office in direct competition with his former employer.

He told ProPrint the new role is mainly to sell office printers to small and medium businesses, though he may sometimes be involved in production print.

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Fryer takes over from incumbent Michael Baird who is leaving the company after setting up the SME business unit that has sales of $36m a year with a staff of 60.

He says he made the move from rival Konica Minolta because he wanted to work in a different product area for a new challenge and was approached by Ricoh. Fryer worked with his new boss, general manager of sales David Phillips, at Canon, which was a factor in his decision.

Fryer’s LinkedIn profile announced his new job late yesterday, though Ricoh has not officially confirmed his appointment.

He had been with Konica Minolta since April 2010 where he rose through various sales manager roles to become general manager of production sales since a year ago.

Before joining Konica Minolta he was Canon’s WA state manager for 18 years, meaning he has now worked for three of the big four digital production print manufacturers.

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