Heidelberg India starts offering Ricoh digital equipments

For addressing the market need of integrated print production, Heidelberg India Pvt Ltd and Ricoh India Ltd announced that both companies have come to the agreement to enter the phased global rollout of the new Heidelberg and Ricoh strategic cooperation in India following the successful launch in Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong. The partnership enables Heidelberg to sell Ricoh’s latest colour digital presses – the RICOH Pro C901 graphic arts edition series and RICOH Pro C751 series, as part of Heidelberg’s total print solution. In India, Heidelberg India will also sell the Ricoh monochrome Pro 1107EX and Pro 1357EX production printing product portfolio.

Digital printing continues to grow as commercial printers extend their business models to offer marketing services, short run colour, and same-day service. Offset printers are increasingly seeking to complete their portfolios with a flexible digital solution integrated into their existing high quality offset environment. The Ricoh and Heidelberg partnership supports them in growing their core offset business and enables them to offer more flexibility towards their clients using Ricoh’s latest digital print technology. Today, offset printers have access to a nearly unlimited range of printing substrates, spot colours and state-of-the-art coating applications as well as specialty inks through Heidelberg’s market leading offerings. By adding Ricoh’s leading digital production printing technology, professional printers will be able to offer the well-known advantages of variable data printing, instant delivery of urgent print jobs and cost effective production of shorter runs. The combination of offset and digital printing now available from Heidelberg will enable print shops to respond flexibly to customer requirements by offering profitable variable data printing and short runs in addition to cost-efficient, high-quality offset printing.

The collaboration with Ricoh is intended to offer customers solutions that provide added value and a long-term profitability. These solutions are specifically geared to address the needs of digital and commercial print shops that handle low print volumes and variable data.

By combining Heidelberg’s Prinect workflow with the dual platforms of offset and digital, for example with the Speedmaster 52 Anicolor press, and digital printing with the RICOH Pro C901 graphic arts edition, print service providers will be able to derive greater profitability from short run jobs and simplify colour and job management. Ricoh and Heidelberg are committed to deliver a value-added offering which yields long term profitability for their customers. Entering into a global distribution contract is the first step of the strategic partnership between the two companies. Heidelberg’s and Ricoh’s 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.