Konica Minolta – An interesting approach to expanding products and services
I recently had the opportunity to attend the Konica Minolta Dealer Convention in Aspen CO. For me, it was interesting on many levels. First of all, I have never really spent a lot of time studying or writing about Konica Minolta, since the majority of its product line had been devoted to A3 and A4 multifunction machines. However, over the last few years, the company has been rapidly expanding into production press products. In fact, at drupa, Konica Minolta made a pledge to target Commercial and Industrial print markets. So I thought this was a great opportunity to dig deeper into its products and plans. So, in the beautiful surroundings of the Aspen Institute, I got a deeper understanding of the Konica Minolta approach to marketing, sales and futures, along with some welcome distractions.
At the start of the conference, as he did at drupa, KM President and CEO Shoei Yamana pledged a significant growth target of $500M in Commercial and Industrial print products over the next 3-4 years. This is an impressive goal, and one has to wonder whether the company will be able to achieve this with its current and extended product lines, or whether the plan is to achieve it through an additional acquisition beyond the 41% share of MGI Konica Minolta currently holds. Konica Minolta seems to have beaten the odds before. Its rapid push into color light production with the bizhub C8000 in 2010 and its partnership with Komori on the KM-1 (now called the AccurioJet KM-1) come to mind.
One of the most interesting things I learned at the event is how dedicated KM is to using the dealer channel to grow its business. The concept of a dealer network makes sense, in that dealers provide more feet on the street to sell and support equipment. The difficulty for many companies has always been how to train and support dealers. Konica Minolta is using a deep learning process, partially by using the existing installed base to glean the necessary knowledge and best practices. In the U.S., KM under the US leadership of Rick Taylor, who came out of the dealer channel, has invested significant resources into developing a training and support infrastructure, and sees the dealer network as a real partner. The company expects the dealer channel to not only sell MFP products, but also production and industrial. While it is a big challenge for both KM and the dealers, it has the potential to offer significant opportunity for both as well, and it is a pretty unique approach to the market.
KM’s initial entry into light production with the bizhub c8000 in 2010 was received with market skepticism but eventually took hold, became a great success, and made the competition take notice. The recently introduced bizhub PRESS C1100 is an impressive successor to the C8000 in the toner-based digital press market. It offers a high output rate of 100 impressions per minute on media ranging from 55gsm to 350gsm.
Additionally, KM has recently introduced the BizHub C71cf 6 color digital label press, built upon its proven digital production press engine. At approximately $400K with some finishing, this is one of the lowest cost roll-to-roll color label printer solutions in the market. The initial market reaction has been great, with over 15 installed to date. KM is working with finishing partners to create total label package/solutions. Currently systems are working with Spartanics for laser die cutting, Aztech for rotary die cutting, and Grafisk Maskinfabrik for semi rotary die cutting. KM is working with others as well, and I would expect more announcements to be made in the near future. The C71cf currently ships with iLabel software developed by Hybrid Software.
Accurio
The systems discussed above are a great base of internally designed production products to begin KM’s transition, but the company has a lot more product to offer now and more to come. To identify KM’s new line of production and industrial products and differentiate them from the Office MFP line, KM has created a new brand, Accurio. Its toner based machines in this line will be branded AccurioPress and its production inkjet presses will be branded AccurioJet. Their first press with the new branding is the AccurioJet KM-1, which was announced as a saleable product at drupa 2016.
The next branded product is the C2070 AccurioPress is a 29.5″ monochrome press that prints on paper and envelopes. It supports media up to 350 gsm, has a 3,000-sheet high capacity stacker, and comes with semi-automated front-to-back registration and skew correction. This press has already been certified with Plockmatic finishing solutions, which are also compatible with the bizhub C1100 and 1250 series. KM will be introducing a new EFI Monochrome Controller; however, customers can also select a CREO or KM DFE instead. KM will likely rebrand some of the other production machines and add new ones to the AccurioPress line over time.
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