Noritsu and Epson establish alliance with focus on two markets

Noritsu Koki Co., Ltd and Seiko Epson Corporation have reached an agreement to establish a broad business alliance designed to further consolidate and develop their printing equipment businesses in the photofinishing and industrial printing markets.

Noritsu and Epson signed a memorandum of understanding on a strategic alliance to develop and market industrial printing systems, a segment where the partners will collaborate on joint development projects and support each others' development programs.  Industrial printers represent a promising area of new business growth for both Noritsu and Epson, and the companies believe that they can leverage their combined management resources to produce synergies.

For example, in the label printing market most labels are printed using an analog printer, yet labels are increasingly being produced in small lots of high variety. Both companies see significant business opportunities in this sector.

Also under the new alliance, Noritsu and Epson also will extend cooperation beyond industrial printing systems and into digital minilabs (a high-speed, compact, commercial photofinishing system) for Noritsu using Epson inkjet devices and technology. The partners have since sought to strengthen their alliance, which has produced the dDP series of ‘dry’ inkjet minilabs as well as other photofinishing system. Today's global minilab market (retail photo printing market) has several universal needs and inkjet systems are among the output devices recently making inroads into the minilab market to answer these needs.