The Currie Group has secured an exclusive distributorship with Japanese press consumables company Fujikura for the Australian market. Fujikura offers its range of offset printing blankets for UV and conventional sheetfed printing, heatset and the newspaper segment.
The Fujikura brand was previously distributed by JL Lennard in the Australian marketplace. Currie Group says the new distributorship signals a generational change in how the dynamic range of Japanese-developed consumables will be presented to Australia’s printers.
Andrew Matthews, national sales manager for The Currie Group says the integration of the Fujikura brand is in line with The Currie Group’s portfolio of prepress, press and bindery hardware and consumables in the Australian market.
He says, “If longevity of supply and consistency in quality still counts to the printers of today, then Fujikura ticks those boxes. This is why The Currie Group is so excited to be able to secure such a coveted agency.”
Matthews adds, “Product is now shipping – and Australia’s Fujikura customers can be confident of a continued and improved supply and support of this product as of the start of October.”
John Shallvey, national technical manager for consumables at Fujikura, says Fujikura's printing blankets are designed for a variety of applications, including long sheetfed perfector presses, multicolour heatset presses, as well as high-speed rotary presses printing newspapers, high-quality catalogues and magazines. They are also gaining popularity in package printing.
Shallvey says, “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.”
The Currie Group adds that with more than 800 printing press units in the Australian marketplace, it is focused on ensuring Fujikura blankets take a higher profile in the consumables budgets of Australian printing houses.
The company concludes it has thrown its distribution network behind the Fujikura product and will be promoting it nationally through offices in all states.
