Above: Andy Cocker

Konica Minolta general manager, production and industrial print, Andy Cocker, has confirmed his division has set a new record in hardware sales for the 2023/24 financial year.

Sprinter understands that 26 per cent of Konica Minolta’s entire revenue for the 12 months ending 31 March 2024 was generated by hardware sales from the industrial and production print division of the company managed by Cocker.

This achievement was announced during the Konica Minolta FY24 Kick Off event this week which has been timed to coincide with the beginning of the new Japanese financial year on 1 April.

“This has been our best year ever,” Cocker told Sprinter.

“Konica Minolta Production and Industrial Print has written the highest ever revenue in our history of operations. We brought in the company’s largest single production print deal in the company’s history as well as new business that helped us achieve in the third quarter the no 1 market share in the low to mid production category – which is the highest globally.

“It has been a phenomenal year and it is a credit to our team. It is not about me as an individual, it is about team and collaboration and our internal motto ‘Kankei’ – which is all about being on the same journey looking for that mutual partnership and mutually beneficial outcome. It is not just sales, but also service, back office, finance, the management team and everyone that makes this company sensational.

“You can have the best product in the world, but the second it is down it is costing people money and that is the difference – we are there with lightning-fast response times to deliver a first-time fix based on great knowledge and tremendous skillsets within our team,” Cocker said.

Konica Minolta Australia chief sales officer, Dean Hosking, hosted the company’s FY24 Kick Off event at the Cremorne Hayden Orpheum theatre in Sydney followed by an awards event held at Mosman Rowers. This is the first time Konica Minolta has held a Kick-Off event in five years.

“Our Kick Off event has been an opportunity to have our product marketing team and vertical managers on stage and discuss what we have planned for the year as well as strategies on the sales side and new campaigns,” Hosking said.

“It was a great opportunity to get the sales team from both the office side of the business as well as the production and industrial print side of the business pumped up about the year ahead.

“It has been our best year for Production and Industrial Print for Konica Minolta Australia – we have never had a bigger year. It has been hard work from the sales team, but this result is also built on a great history that we have had in the market and not just in the last 12 months. We have a great reputation with both the reliability and the technology within our products – but our superpower is our service team. Everyone we talk to tells us how great our service team is and that is combined with a switched-on sales team.

“We know we are not the cheapest in the market, and although we are competitive, the value customers receive from Konica Minolta is a quality product with quality service and an

account management team that stands behind the products. Our theme is Kankei – which is roughly translated in Japanese to mutually beneficial partnerships – and that is what we have built in our industrial and production print space.

“The new line of high-end industrial print to be launched at drupa next month is all about adding value to our customers and extra lines of revenue. If we can make our customers more successful by making more revenue, then we have delivered Kankei – and that is what it is all about. We love the commercial print space and our core products, but in the longer term we want to get into the premium space and add more value to our customers.”

During the evening function at Mosman Rowers, the top salespeople for the 12 months ending 31 March were recognised across the Konica Minolta Australia business.

Sales staff from the Production and Industrial Print business were recognised with awards for exceeding their sales targets including: David Paterson (Victoria), Adam Todd (National), Colin Johnstone (Victoria), Blaise Masson (Queensland), Mary Kiely-Scales (Queensland) as well as Jim Abouraad from New South Wales who was recognised as the Production and Industrial Print salesperson of the year.

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