Skip to main content

Just when you thought things would settle down, Kodak and Ricoh join forces so Ricoh will sell Kodak in Europe, and it may just be a matter of time before there's and OEM agreement here in the US.

Andrew Tribute on February 12th, 2009

Last week we had the fuss about the Wall Street Journal and their misunderstanding of the messages they were given in a briefing by Kodak Chairman and CEO Antonio Perez. In that the WSJ incorrectly reported that Kodak planned to divest itself of its Nexpress and Digimaster digital printing operations, whereas Perez actually stated that Kodak planned to develop the operations of this division through partnerships and alliances.

What a difference a week makes. Today in Sweden Kodak and Ricoh announced an alliance that allows Ricoh to sell the Kodak Nexpress and Digimaster product ranges throughout most of the European markets. Ricoh has a strong distribution channel in these markets and currently it sells a wide range of Ricoh light monochrome and color production presses under its various brands. These channels include those Danka/Infotec, Gestetner and Infoprint Solutions, the joint venture with IBM. The Kodak products will be sold alongside the Ricoh Aficio range as well as the recently introduced Ricoh Pro C900 color press.

At this time neither Kodak nor Ricoh is saying any more but I get the feeling that there is a lot more to this agreement that will come out over time. At the moment this agreement just covers Europe, but no doubt this is just a start. I also have to ask where does this put Kodak’s agreement with Canon. I hear that the Nexpress M700, that uses Canon 7000 technology, is sitting somewhat exposed in the market at a high price compared with equivalent products, and that it is being well undercut by Canon’s pushing of its 6000 press. Can we expect that Kodak’s weaknesses against companies like Xerox, where they have no comparable products to the Docucolor 242/252/260 and 700 Digital Press, could be helped by moving the Ricoh Aficio range through Kodak’s channels?

I think it is a shame that this information could not have been made available when Antonio Perez addressed the financial community. Perhaps he would have got a more positive reaction and perhaps also he would have had an increase in the Kodak share price. I am sure that this is not Kodak’s only announcement to be made in the next few months so I think we shall have to watch the company closely for some time yet.
Last edited {1}
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Ricoh does sell the NexPress in the US through Ricoh's Print Production Business Group (PPBG) and through IKON. This has been in place with PPBG for over a year now and with IKON for a few years now.

Ricoh's PPBG group does not sell the M700 press as it competes with the C900. I'm not 100% sure about the arrangement at IKON but it's probably similar since IKON used to sell the Canon line up to the 7000.

I haven't read the article announcing this but I'd bet dollars to donuts that the EU agreement is with Ricoh's EU - PPBG division.
Bob R emailed me this and me to post:

By Bob Riendeau on Feb 15, 2009 | Reply

Having worked at IKON, Ricoh PPBG, and now at Kodak, it does not make sense to me why Kodak would sell off its Nexpress Business. The above mentioned growth in high end print is very accurate. That growth is in color, but it’s in continuous inkjet color. I see Kodak restructuring for the real market growth by reducing its sale force and selling through a number of channels to maximize its placements of Nexpresses while it prepares and moves with Kodak momentum towards the very near future of color. High speed high quality low operating cost inkjet technology. Watch the Kodak Stream jet product…it’s the future and Kodak is there!
quote:
Originally posted by Warren Erickson:
Who is doing the service for the Europe plan?

In the U.S., the Ricoh branches the PPBG salesperson work with Kodak during the sales process. Service is done by Kodak.


By Henk Gianotten on Feb 13, 2009 | Reply

The Dutch and German Océ Nexpress deal are documented in the following text:
“Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group (GCG) and Océ-Nederland BV Sign Nexpress Partnership Agreement in the Netherlands.
Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group (GCG) has a partnership agreement with Océ-Nederland BV, whereby Océ will sell the Nexpress Digital Production Color Presses directly in the Netherlands. A similar relationship already exists for the German market. Océ will now be licensed to sell directly the Kodak Nexpress Digital Production Color Presses to its customer base. These high end presses including the Kodak Nexpress S3600, S3000, S2500 and S2100 Digital Production Color presses, offer up to 5 color digital printing capability at speeds ranging from 2,100 to 3,600 A3 5/0 sheets per hour, or 70 to 120 A4/letter pages per minute.
“We are delighted to be partnering with Océ-Nederland BV to sell the high end Nexpress presses in the Netherlands,” comments Philippe Berte, Managing Director Kodak’s GCG, Benelux & Nordics. “We believe that there is a huge market out there for digital production color presses and working together we can offer a wide range of end users the ideal solution for their businesses.”
“The Kodak Nexpress Presses are among the best digital production color presses on the market,” comments Jan Verschaeren Managing Director of Océ-Nederland BV. “We endeavour at all times to offer our customers a broad selection for their printing needs and so by adding them to our product portfolio we are completing the range of presses that we provide. We are very much looking forward to working closely with Kodak and firmly believe that this partnership will provide huge added value for our customer base here in the Netherlands,”

As you can see, they apparently have the same deal in Germany.

Add Reply

Post
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×