Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG reached a global agreement to distribute the toner-based Ricoh Pro C901 press. The agreement is scheduled to start in April 2011, with Ricoh providing service and support.
“By rounding off our offset portfolio, including Anicolor technology, with new digital printing equipment, we are providing our clients the combination of best-in-class offset, and now also digital printing technology,” said Bernhard Schreier, CEO of Heidelberg. “With this new partnership, we will also address customer demands in the broad spectrum of hybrid print applications, [in other words] the combination of offset and digital printing within a single print product.”
The distribution agreement is to begin in the United Kingdom and Germany, while both companies expect to be working together on a global basis by the May 2012 drupa trade show in Dusseldorf. Heidelberg and Ricoh are also planning to expand the agreement to include more Ricoh production machines in the future.
“In today’s climate it is important that commercial printers have the right tools to be versatile, and meet both long and short run requests,” said Shiro Kondo, President and CEO, Ricoh Company. “Heidelberg is the gold standard in commercial and packaging printing. This partnership demonstrates its confidence in our digital technology and the ability of Ricoh to meet the needs of the graphic arts industry.”
The Ricoh Pro C901 press, running on Ricoh’s PxPTM chemical toner, has a speed range of 60 to 90 pages per minute. The move marks Heidelberg’s second major distribution agreement made in 2011, as the press maker begins to sell EFI’s VUTEk GS series of wide-format printers in the United States.
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