KOMORI HAS REPLACED MANROLAND AT ONE of Germany’s most important distributors of printing equipment, boosting its standing in the key European market while dealing a further blow to the German press manufacturer.
From January Komori’s sheetfed presses will be sold through Baumann, which will service and support the products through the German heartland regions from Bavaria, Saxony, through Frankfurt and the Rhineland. Baumann – supplied in the UK by Friedheim International – is already a distributor for CTP equipment from Kodak and Agfa, associated plates, MIS from EFI, as well as Xerox, Kodak and Presstek from digital printing and range of companies in large format inkjet. It also sells the Wohlenberg guillotines and handling equipment that are manufactured by another part of the group.
CHRISTIAN BAUMANN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, says: “The new partnership with Komori is a big opportunity for our company, and for existing and future customers. Previously we were competing against Komori, and we are grateful and proud to now be able to work together with the third-largest printing press manufacturer in the world. By adding the southern and eastern areas of Germany we cover more than half the German market – a huge challenge for us, but one we are eager to take on.”
The deal is a coup for Neil Sutton as European managing director for Komori International Netherlands as it provides the bridge into southern Germany. Traditionally japanese manufacturers have struggled in comparison to Germany’s domestic press manufacturers.
IT SHOULD ALSO BOOST KOMORI’S SALES which like other litho press manufacturers have been hit by global recession. In the first half of this financial year, sales fell to €297 million (€332 million) while orders were also down, despite Drupa, at €357 million (€394 million). However the company managed to reduce its loses to €16 million (€28 million). Sales in Europe dipped only slightly from €54 million to €49 million and Drupa helped orders rise to €66 million (€64 million).
Komori though is not relying on litho press sales for future prosperity. It has embarked on a “business structural transformation” in which it will offer its skills as a print engineering service provider, namely by building paper transports for other companies imaging technology. The prime examples are its work with Landa and Konica Minolta. It has also developed flatbed and rotary offset gravure presses to produce printed electronics and has signed a deal with De La Rue to create a new range of currency presses. The first of these is being installed at present.
KOMORI IS ALSO BEGINNING TO RAMP up sales of the Impremia C80, the OEM version of Konica Minolta’s C8000 digital press. The first markets, Japan and the US, have 40 installations with four European markets, including the UK, now coming on stream. Komori reckons that digital printing can generate sales of ¥12 billion by 2015 from its tie ups with KM and Landa. Orders for the latter machines will begin from Ipex 2014.
