The termination of a two-year sales partnership between the local arms of Heidelberg and Konica Minolta leaves the path open for the German press giant to align with the rest of its global divisions by linking with Ricoh.
A reshuffle has been in the offing ever since Heidelberg announced its global deal with Ricoh back in February 2011, with speculation intensifying last month after the German firm revealed it would be rebadging Ricoh's digital presses under its 'Linoprint' brand at Drupa.
Heidelberg Australia managing director Andy Vels Jensen told ProPrint his company would finalise a deal with the Japanese corporation in two or three weeks.
"It's been the worst kept secret in the world… The reason this is happening is because of the worldwide agreement Heidelberg has with Ricoh."
Jensen said Heidelberg and Konica Minolta Australia had terminated their deal "by mutual agreement" after selling 42 presses together.
"We parted as very good friends. It was a successful relationship," he said.
That has paved the way for Konica Minolta Australia to join the company's global sales agreement with Japanese offset press manufacturer Komori.
David Procter, general manager of production printing at Konica Minolta Australia, told ProPrint this was "under consideration".
Procter also reassured customers that his company had a "very strong working relationship" with Heidelberg and that service would be unaffected by the ending of the deal.
"Printers who had purchased Konica Minolta presses from Heidelberg will continue to receive full support from Konica Minolta under their existing service agreements and Heidelberg and Konica Minolta will work closely together to ensure ongoing satisfaction from our customers," he said.
Konica Minolta described the Heidelberg partnership as "the most successful one of its type between a digital and offset manufacturer in Australia".
However, Konica Minolta managing director Hiro Kaji said it was always likely to end given "Heidelberg's global decision to launch the Linoprint range of digital presses at Drupa".
Under the local Konica deal, Heidelberg was the exclusive Australian promoter of its range of Bizhub digital presses.
Heidelberg started actively searching for digital partners in 2010, six years after it famously sold its 50% stake in NexPress Solutions to Kodak for $1.
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