Currie Group continues to build its portfolio of high quality consumables, having secured exclusive distributorship of the respected Fujikura brand of blankets and pressroom consumables
Currie Group national sales manager, Consumables, Andrew Matthews, says the new agreement is a ‘landmark advance for the local market,’ and “the new distributorship signals a generational change in how the dynamic range of Japanese-developed consumables will be presented to Australia’s printers.”Integration of the Fujikura brand with Currie’s already comprehensive range of consumable product is in line with the Group’s objective of presenting a premium portfolio of prepress, press and bindery hardware and consumables to the Australian market.
“If longevity of supply and consistency in quality still counts to the printers of today, then Fujikura ticks those boxes,” explains Matthews. “This is why Currie Group is so excited to be able to secure such a coveted agency. Product is now shipping and Australia’s Fujikura customers can be confident of a continued and improved supply and support of this product.”
Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Fujikura Rubber has, since 1957, developed and manufactured a range of offset printing blankets offering outstanding image reproduction, capacity and durability. Fujikura blankets are manufactured to exacting ISO09001 and ISO14001 quality standards and this year, the company was recognised by the International Newspaper Quality Colour Club for the quality of its products.
The Fujikura blanket range comprises Supaprint for UV and conventional sheetfed printing, Supaweb for heatset and Supanews for the newspaper segment as well as Supaform self-adhesive blankets.
Fujikura general manager, Koichi Kanai, says he is delighted that Currie Group, with its extensive distribution network throughout Australia, will be backing the brand and promoting and supporting Fujikura blankets for new and existing customers.
“The Currie Group is one of the most trusted names in Australian printing, with a network that covers the whole country,” says Kanai. “They also have the technical expertise and engineering capabilities to fully understand the latest technical innovations we have incorporated into Fujikura blankets.”
Currie has been responsible for installation of more than 800 press units across the Australian printing industry, and the Group is determined to ensure that Fujikura blankets will take a higher profile in the consumables budgets of Australian printing houses.
Currie Group national technical manager, Consumables, John Shallvey, says that there will be no change in supply for existing customers. “We have engaged the same blanket converting facility that has been cutting and barring the Fujikura range.”
“With the market demanding higher press speeds, more colour, higher-quality outputs and greater ease of use, Fujikura blankets are a key to higher pressroom productivity,” explains Shallvey.
He says the Currie Group has thrown its distribution network behind the Fujikura product and will be promoting it nationally through offices in all states.
“We will also try to broaden usage of the Fujikura blankets into the heatset and coldset web markets,” he says.
Fujikura printing blankets are designed for a variety of press applications, including long sheetfed perfectors, multicolour heatset presses, as well as high-speed web presses printing newspapers, high-quality catalogues and magazines.
They are also gaining popularity in package printing.
Shalvey says Currie customers will benefit from cost-effective pricing across the Group’s entire range of products: “Fujikura will join Horizon and Shinohara on the hardware side and T&K Toka inks and Mitsubishi, Nikken and Megami on the consumables portfolio. It’s our intention to package that complete offering to the benefit of our customers.”
The Fujikura rounds off the Currie Group consumables offering which also includes Mitsubishi Dotprint polyester plate material, the Nikken range of offset pressroom chemistry and Megami specialty inks.
Currie Group is exhibiting on stand H10 at PacPrint 09 in Melbourne, May 26-30 next year.
