Konica Minolta strengthens European industrial print business

Recently, Konica Minolta has launched digital printing equipment targeted primarily at the labels and package printing business: the bizhub PRESS C71cf narrow web digital press and the AccurioJet KM-1 B2 digital inkjet press, as well entering into a financial and strategic alliance with digital finishing specialist MGI.

In a statement, the company said, ‘Konica Minolta is determined to evolve into a problem solving digital company capable of facilitating workflow transformation with its digital technologies to deliver greater convenience and higher productivity to customers’ work processes. The market size of industrial printing, including labels, packaging and textiles, is estimated at 50 trillion yen, which means there is a huge growth potential in the digital printing business. Also, the need for digital printing is increasing as more and more companies turn to marketing strategies that motivate customers to buy using exclusive label and packaging designs.’

The company believes that the growth of digitalized, high-mix small-lot production will also require digitized post-press in the areas of varnishing, laminating, foil stamping, and die cutting.

‘Konica Minolta will seek opportunities to accelerate open innovation in this field through its existing alliance with MGI Digital Technology (MGI), a leading high value-added digital printing equipment manufacturer based in France, and also by strengthening partnerships with a number of post-press equipment manufacturers in Europe,’ said the company.

Under its Mid-term Business Strategy, Konica Minolta plans to increase total revenue in the production print business to 360 billion yen by 2020, driven largely by growth in the industrial label and package printing markets.