Ricoh is now a Kodak reseller.
The print vendor will sell Kodak NEXPRESS 2100, 2100 Plus, 2500 and the new S3000 Digital Production Color Presses under a reseller agreement signed Sept. 9. Service and support will be provided by Kodak.
“The agreement provides [Kodak] with additional market reach,” said Don Whaley, vice president of Business and Channel Development for Kodaks Graphic Communications Group, U.S. and Canada. “Were very strong in the traditional offset [printing] space. Ricoh has a strong reach into the office environment in-plant, government and education. Its a dual channel strategy. Ricoh will sell for us to in-plant, government and education, and we will support [its] efforts. Our sales org will continue to sell into segments we already compete in.”
Target customers for NEXPRESS systems through the agreement, according to Whaley, include in-plant/CRD (central reprographic departments) in financial, travel and hospitality; manufacturing, advertising and other industries doing high-end-color with variable data and/or short runs, such as mailing collateral, or billing stuffers, as well as government, education and commercial printers.
“Traditional commercial printers are looking at these systems—they provide a lot of flexibility for run length, while providing comparable quality to offset,” he said.
For Ricoh, based in West Caldwell, N.J., the NEXPRESS Digital Production Color Presses, which run between $250,000 to $500,000, give its customers a proven, high-end production color solution that compliments our office and light production color products, said Carl Joachim, vice president of marketing, Ricohs Production Printing Business Group.
Daniel P. Dern is an independent technology writer. He can be reached at [email protected].