IIJ celebrates 15th anniversary

‘Mr Ohno, president of Konica Minolta’s inkjet printhead division, invited me to meet him for dinner while he was passing through Heathrow. About the second beer, he suggested working for Konica Minolta, but when I mentioned setting up a new company, his reply was, “fine, you can be our partner”. I don’t think I really had much say in the decision,’ recalled Corral. 

Starting in a small, converted farm building, the first employee hired was Lesley Scanlon, who is still with the company as a director and general manager. Around 2008 the company started to branch out into manufacturing inkjet print engines. 

‘At that time were dedicated to helping machine builders integrate Konica Minolta inkjet printheads successfully. But we found ourselves solving the same technical issues over and over. It made sense to take that knowledge and create inkjet modules that our customers could then easily integrate,’ added Corral. 

Fifteen years later, the company has over 50 staff and occupies 17,000 sqft premises near Cambridge, UK. It has satellite offices in the USA and South Africa and over 500 inkjet print engines installed worldwide. Key business areas are security printing, packaging, and décor. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit, IIJ had a record year in 2020, and with new products coming online in 2021, the company is very confident of a bright future.