Global Strategic Cooperation between Heidelberg and Ricoh

Shiro Kondo, Ricoh CEO and Bernhard Schreier (right), Heidelberg CEO shaking hands.Aiming to lead the way in short run and variable data colour printing for the graphic arts industry, Ricoh Company Ltd and Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG announced a global strategic cooperation which will enable customers to combine the best of digital and offset printing.

As a first step, both companies agreed to enter into a global distribution contract for Ricoh’s production printing product portfolio. This agreement enables Heidelberg to sell Ricoh’s latest colour digital press, the Ricoh ProTM C901 graphic arts edition – Ricoh`s high speed colour digital press with Ricoh PxPTM chemical toner, as well as appropriate future production printing offerings in Ricoh’s pipeline. The first markets will be UK and Germany with a phased rollout to follow in other geographies with completion targeted for drupa 2012. Their future plans are to include integration with Heidelberg’s industry standard workflow solution in the graphic arts industry, Prinect, as well as joint development activities for future printing applications.