“This comes at an exciting time for Ricoh,” says Kathy Wilson, general manager, Business Solutions & Production for Ricoh Australia. “Ricoh has quickly established a presence in the Australian production print market and have continued to grow. For Heidelberg to select Ricoh as its preferred digital solutions partner is an endorsement of our capabilities.”
The companies say that the technology partnership will lead to improved solutions for customers of both Heidelberg and Ricoh, including tightly integrated hybrid workflows encompassing digital and offset technologies.
“It has been interesting to watch Ricoh’s success over the past two years”, commented Andy Vels Jensen, managing director of Heidelberg ANZ. “The culture in Ricoh and the service-minded attitude of their people fits in beautifully with what Heidelberg is all about.”
“We got into digital early as we wanted to engage with our customers on also their digital colour needs. The A3 market in ANZ has always been important to us, keeping in mind that we installed in excess of 1000 Speedmaster 52 printing units over a seven year period. These clients in particular were the ones looking to Heidelberg for advice on their entry into digital colour.”
Heidelberg Australia kicked off its digital activities with Konica Minolta following Ipex 2010 and over a 22 month period, a total of 44 bizhub digital presses were installed into Heidelberg’s customer base, 70 per cent of which were to first time users.
Vels Jensen said, “The timing of our marriage with Ricoh Australia couldn’t be better in as much as drupa is less than 30 sleeps away and together with Ricoh we will be launching a magnificent line-up of equipment, complete solutions and connectivity in Duesseldorf. Given Heidelberg has been present in Australia for 88 years this May, everything seems to be aligned to ensure a successful partnership built on the strengths of our two companies.”
Heidelberg will also shortly be announcing an agreement with Ricoh in New Zealand; which includes the South Pacific Islands where Heidelberg has enjoyed much success over the years.
“We look forward to a long and successful partnership between the two iconic companies, to offer best-in-class products, services and technology to the Australian market,” concluded Wilson.
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