The terms of the agreement will see Duplo's extensive range of finishing products being available to Ricoh operational companies as a complete print-to-finish package. As well as supporting Ricoh's objective of promoting synergies through product integration, the agreement will broaden the company's market-reach by introducing Duplo's offering to new customers.
"Duplo supplies the widest range of digital print finishing equipment available today, making it the ideal partner to support Ricoh's growing production print portfolio," says Tony Lock, managing director for Duplo UK.
"The partnership will add value to the graphic arts industry as it will provide Ricoh customers with compatible digital print/finishing systems, which are capable of completing the print-production process from start to finish. This will help them increase their productivity through providing a more efficient and streamlined workflow process. It will also see two major providers to the printing industry working together to develop a more united supplier environment.
Lock continues: "As well as consolidating the supply chain, the partnership will allow us to respond to industry demand by providing integrated, modular print/finishing systems, which provide greater automation throughout the print-line."
For the first time, at IPEX 2010, Duplo is supporting the Ricoh Europe stand with their DC-615Pro cutter/slitter/creaser which is being used throughout the show to finish marketing items such as brochures, flyers and corporate stationery live on the stand. Using SRA3 sheets with printed barcodes, the print work is taken from the Ricoh print engine placed into the DC-615Pro and finished without any manual set-up or interaction.
Miriam Halabicova, product marketing manager, Ricoh Europe PLC, says: "The set-up between our machines we had at IPEX summarises the benefits that Duplo can bring to our offering; print to finish in one single pass, without any manual intervention."
"A key reason for partnering with Duplo is the fact that it is extremely well established across Europe with offices in the UK, Italy, France and Poland and has a widespread European distribution network, which ensures that Ricoh has the necessary support across Europe. Ricoh is also a well known market innovator and is especially focused on developing automated precision technology, which we see as extremely important. The future of the professional industry hinges on technology that increases our customer's efficiency and productivity in order to develop new services to be able maximise a return on investment. We see complete solutions to be instrumental in achieving this."
