Following on from a very successful pacprint year in which Konica Minolta built on its profile in the offset segment and moved into a purpose-developed new Australian headquarters, the company looks forward to further growth in its market share in 2010
Konica Minolta Australia’s national marketing manager, David Procter, says, “We have seen a steady growth over the last six months in digital volumes across both colour and mono of approximately 17 per cent despite the prevailing economic conditions. This can be attributed to a number of factors including offset transfer, shorter print runs, the availability of inline finishing and cost reduction.”
Procter says there is a continual switch of offset volumes to digital and, in some cases Konica Minolta has found offset presses being removed from production departments completely and replaced with single or multiple digital presses.
“With the need to streamline business processes and reduce ongoing costs, the shorter print runs have become more prevalent,” explains Procter. “In addition, variable data printing enables more targeted marketing campaigns. The growth in this marketing can also be attributed to the increasing availability of professional inline finishing.
“Now available on all production digital presses from Konica Minolta are perfect binding, saddle stitching, multiple folding, stream punching and stapling.
“This type of inline finishing removes the labour factor from the printroom floor allowing a print business to streamline production and provide lower costs to their clients.”
Cost reduction
Printing digital is increasingly more cost effective due to the innovation of digital press providers such as Konica Minolta, Procter says.
He adds, “Longer life consumables, less service interaction, remote diagnostics, robustness of the engines and a highly skilled service force” are among the factors which make digital attractive for print shop owners and managers.
“Not only have volumes grown over the last six months, but we are delighted to announce a record December month for Konica Minolta with over 40 digital presses hitting the marketplace,” continues Procter.
“Konica Minolta continues to expand its core business of franchise and quick printers while gaining ground in the more traditional offset market.”
To further promote the growth it has experienced in the marketplace, Konica Minolta has implemented a marketing campaign allowing a free upgrade from the 55 impressions per minute digital press (the bizhub PRO C5501 professional) to its 65 impressions a minute digital press (the bizhub PRO C6501 professional).
Procter says the growth being enjoyed by Konica Minolta is not only external and related to installations, but also internal with innovative product development in response to market demand.
“Evidence of this will be available later this year when we release the next generation of the highly successful bizhub PRO digital press line,” continues Procter.
“This new press will improve on the current range of presses in terms of speed, configurations, quality and volume capability.
“The first public showing of this press will be at the highly anticipated Ipex trade show this year,” Procter concludes.
