Konica Minolta and MGI Digital Technology have expanded their cooperation agreement, introducing new initiatives to benefit customers in a single-source partnership approach.
The intitial strategic and financial cooperation between the two companies dates back to 2014 and was subsequently expanded in 2016 with Konica Minolta taking a 40.5% stake in MGI. As a result, Konica Minolta added MGI products for production, label and packaging printing to its existing portfolio.
The latest cooperation will further accelerate common go-to-market activities within commercial and industrial digital printing markets. As such new combined logo will also be applied for all dedicated common marketing activities when Konica Minolta and MGI appear as partners.
The companies are also aiming to help customers bring embellishment in-house, having earmarked it as ‘a key growth driver in the production printing market and at the same time a profitable way for print service providers, commercial and in-house printers to set themselves apart from the competition.’
This will involve promoting systems such as Konica Minolta’s MGI Jetvarnish 3D One, introduced last year, and its AccurioPress range alongsideMGI models that complement these machines. In addition, the joint portfolio includes UV spot coating and digital hot foil stamping.
Tony Charlet, general manager, MGI global business, commented, ‘The strengthening of our partnership is of particular benefit to customers and interested parties. In the future, they will receive service and advice on all aspects of production printing and digital embellishment from a single source.
‘As a company with a strong customer focus and a broad-based team of consultants and on-site support, we are able to design and implement individual embellishment solutions together with the customer. The fact that MGI has again moved a little closer to Konica Minolta is symbolised by a new, common logo under which we will market MGI systems in the future.’
