Australia’s offset print community will now be able to source and integrate Konica Minolta digital printing solutions through the country’s biggest sheetfed press supplier Heidelberg
In an exclusive agreement signed at Ipex Heidelberg’s Australian customers will be able to buy Konica Minolta digital print solutions through Heidelberg. The deal is a world first, and for both companies, and most importantly printers, it represents a new way forward in the digital journey.
The agreement, which lasts for an initial period of three years, makes a lot of sense when seen against the backdrop of the dynamics that are impacting print. Hiro Kaji, managing director of Konica Minolta says, “In three years time we estimate that the majority of Australian offset printers will be running a digital solution. The demand from the market for short run work, and for variable data printing, will continue to increase significantly, providing new revenue opportunities for printers.”
Andy Vels Jensen, managing director of Heidelberg ANZ says, “We see the small printshop of the future with a Speedmaster SM 52 Anicolor and a Konica Minolta as a perfect complement to each other. The quality of bizhub PRESS will not cause any offset printer to have sleepless nights, it is well suited to that short run market.”
According to Hiro Kaji, “For many commercial offset printers digital is a new area. Having Heidelberg as their partner will enable them to move forward with confidence; they know Heidelberg, they trust Heidelberg, and they know that Heidelberg knows their market inside out. Commercial printers will have the best help possible as they work with Heidelberg to integrate digital printing into their businesses.”
To those printers who imagine Heidelberg is going over to the dark side Vels Jensen says, “Heidelberg is totally committed to sheetfed offset printing and believes that sheetfed offset will constitute the major part of the commercial print industry for as far as the eye can see.
However Heidelberg also recognises that digital printing has a place in today’s modern print room, and that with an efficient automated workflow printers may benefit from having a digital output device for very short run and variable data work.”
Heidelberg could have opted to work with any one of a number of digital solutions developers, however Vels Jensen says, “Two aspects directed us to Konica Minolta. First we knew the performance of the technology, as we knew Heidelberg customers that run bizhubs and they spoke very well of them.
“Secondly, the benefit with Konica Minolta is its people; we knew many of them and heard of their growing reputation as a down to earth group committed to enabling printers to exploit digital opportunities. We looked at the potential, we looked at the whole market, and concluded there was a good possibility of working with them. The “can do” business culture of the people at our two companies is very much alike.”
Vels Jensen quips it wasn’t the colour of the Konica Minolta printers that did it, even though the bizhub PRO has that beautiful Heidelberg grey tint.....
Hiro Kaji says, “The main reason for working with Heidelberg is to enable the company to meet customer requirements. Many of Heidelberg’s customers are now looking to add a digital solution, and those offset printers which have had a relationship with Heidelberg for five, 10, 20, 30 years want to continue their partnership and want Heidelberg to help them to both integrate and manage their digital solution. Digital and offset are not in competition with each other, they share the requirement of today’s print business.
“Konica Minolta is good at digital printing, with excellent product including the new bizhub Press range, and national service base. Heidelberg knows and understands the needs and dynamics of the commercial offset business to a greater extent than anyone else, and their mission is to supply their customers with the capability to meet the demands of the market, which includes a digital print solution.
“Offset printing has a big future, but so does digital, so for printers to be able to source their offset and digital solutions from the supplier that knows more about the market than anyone else is a real win. Heidelberg will take responsibility, and that is huge benefit to the printer.”
Heidelberg claims a 60 per cent share of the sheetfed market in Australia, and also supplies prepress and finishing solutions, meaning there are few printers in the entire country that are not on its customer list in one way or another, so this agreement will provide Konica Minolta with unrivalled market penetration.
Vels Jensen says, “Printers will have peace of mind both buying from Heidelberg and having Heidelberg on hand to help with the integration of digital into their businesses.”
Konica Minolta will continue to service the printers, Vels Jensen says, “We looked at the service and support that Konica Minolta offered and decided it would be best to keep Konica Minolta as the service and support business, there is no point reinventing the wheel, it doesn’t make sense for Heidelberg to run service when Konica Minolta already has a national team in place. However we are already training our account managers and will also hire business drivers to focus on this area of our business.”
Konica Minolta has travelled a long way in a relatively short period of time. It entered the print for pay market at the start of the century, with its 8050 and C500 models, but became serious about graphic arts with the launch of the bizhub PRO series at PacPrint 2005. Kaji says, “We had learned a lot about the dynamics of the commercial print industry by the time we launched the bizhub PRO, particularly in its need for complete colour consistency and quality, and in service support. We significantly increased our support when we decided to seriously enter the market at PacPrint 2005, and now have service staff based around the country for rapid service.
“When it comes to the actual output printers were choosing the 6500 thanks to its consistent and predictable colour quality. This is due to Konica Minolta’s proprietary Simitri toner. I know other developers have chemical toner, but our range of products are different, because of the much smaller particle size, which gives higher quality image, which means big advantage when it comes to quality perception.”
That combination of quality and consistency, together with service support, means Konica Minolta now claims a 40 per cent market share in the print-for-pay (PFP) sector of copy shops, franchises, small digital printers.
According to Kaji the recent economic problems have had their benefits in the digital drive, he says, “Ironically the GFC was a major booster for digital printing, as companies sought to conserve cash through buying much shorter runs, albeit the overall volume over time may have remained the same, but with multiple short runs instead of one long run. Their marketing officers and agencies also looked to the benefits of targeting one on one with variable data.”
Konica Minolta bases its business on its own research, on monitoring industry trends, and on commissioning research.
Kaji says, “I think we will have a good and strong partnership with Heidelberg, we appreciate that we have different cultures but the same goal, to enable printers to maximise their profit opportunities and expand their businesses.
“We are more than pleased to have Heidelberg as our partner. Offset printers will be dealing with a supplier who talks their language, for instance we say duplex when offset printer means perfecting, we say pages per minute while offset printer says sheets an hour.”
Heidelberg will be supplying the entire Konica Minolta bizhub PRO/PRESS range, with the bizhub PRO series now joined by the mid production bizhub PRESS series. Kaji says, “We now provide solutions from light to mid production. We want to be number one in all those market segments, and with Heidelberg in the commercial offset market and us being strong in PFP we are well set to achieve that goal together.”
The bizhub range
bizhub PRESS C8000
Launched at Ipex and the flagship model in the new bizhub PRESS series the C8000 is designed as a serious production printer. It outputs 1200dpi with, according to Konica Minolta, images on a par with offset presses.
Colour quality is achieved through an inline image density control, which makes real time density adjustment. There is also a new density balance adjustment mode which realises stabilised printouts through consistent density.
The C8000 will handle stock up to 350gsm, has an air suction belt for feeding, and a hybrid decurling mechanism which significantly reduces paper curling. Output is 80ppm on a wide variety of stock, with automatic duplex (both sides) printing for paper up to 300gsm.
A wide range of in-line finishing options for high performance, productivity and added value include hole punching, folding, stapling, saddle stitching and perfect binding in a single system.
bizhub PRESS C7000 and C6000
These two models use the image processing technology including high resolutions as the bizhub PRESS C8000. Their platform is based on the award winning bizhub PRO C6501 series with output performance of 71ppm and 60 ppm respectively.
The engine has similar functionality, including colour management, stock transport and media capability like the flagship C8000, up to 300gsm.
Bizhub PRO series
Konica Minolta has five colour printers in its bizhub PRO range; the C5501 Professional, C6501 Professional, C6501 Production, C6501 ProXx, and the C65hc. All produce 65 ppm impressions a minute, with the exception of the C5501, which outputs 55 impressions a minute.
Konica Minolta says the C5501 offers sustainable, reasonable running costs. Konica Minolta’s highly dependable colour production system ensures competitiveness for print providers that strive to produce perfect, high-quality results but also need to protect their margins.
The bizhub PRO 6501 Professional automates the finishing process to enable the one-stop production of sophisticated, high-impact print products, with Konica Minolta making available a choice of in-line finishing functions.
With a capacity of up to 7500 sheets the the bizhub PRO C6501 Production solution staples, punches and perfect binds at the full rated speed of 3,600 A4 impressions an hour. This rapid throughput means the bizhub PRO C6501 Production generates high productivity and maximum revenues in a commercial print production environment.
The paper and toner refill on-the-fly functionality makes the bizhub PRO C6501Pro x suitable for heavy-duty production with average monthly output volumes of 75,000 or more. Paper trays hold up to 7500 sheets.
Featuring the High Chroma toner, the bizhub Pro C65hc produces RGB colours more faithfully than ever before. With a colour space similar to the RGB gamut, the bizhub Pro C65hc produces vivid colours beloved by advertising agencies.
Andrew Tribute
