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.

For the fourth year, XAAR sponsors PrintIT! programme engaging students in topical design projects using the latest print techniques to demonstrate just how diverse and interesting the print industry can be. The project aims to educate audience all possible opportunities delivered by digital inkjet technology. Therefore, XAAR continues to support this major initiative that promotes the print industry within schools to attract fresh talent with fresh ideas.

Kodak announces that Ravi Venkatraman has joined as vice president and head – services for business, at Kodak India Limited. In this position, he will be responsible for developing all aspects of services businesses including technical services, multi-vendor services, document management services, print services, Kodak security solutions (KSS) and in the future, packaging services for India. Ravi aims to make Kodak as the partner of choice for innovation and technology for enterprise customers in India through Kodak’s strong network of partner eco system catering to mission critical ‘customer life cycle management - acquisition to retention’ process across business verticals.

After a successful roadshow throughout India this past August together with their local partner MEPCo Gulf, Mondi, the global manufacturer of paper and packaging, introduced its uncoated digital paper portfolio including its HP Indigo approved papers to the broader Indian market at Paperex 2011 held in New Dehli during December 10-13.

“This August we visited several printers in India to explain and demonstrate the features of our brands, particularly our HP Indigo approved papers Color Copy indigo, DNS indigo, NAUTILUS SuperWhite, NAUTILUS Universal and BIO TOP 3 next,” says Johannes Klumpp, marketing and sales director for Mondi Uncoated Fine Paper, adding “We received very good feedback based on the versatility of these papers for print applications and on the natural texture and appearance of uncoated fine papers.” As a result of the roadshow, paper distributors Sun Fine Paper in Mumbai and NV Paper Products in Chennai have teamed up with Mondi to include Mondi uncoated fine paper in their portfolios.