Konica Minolta launches Professional Print Division

Konica Minolta has launched a Professional Print Division in Europe for which it has appointed a new general manager.

Charles Lissenburg, who joined the company in April, will be at the helm of the new division, which aims to focus on providing products leading to business efficiency and value improvement for the firm’s commercial and industrial printing customers.

The new division is based at Konica Minolta’s European headquarters in Langenhagen, Germany.

The company said it has been created to reflect the growing importance of the industrial and commercial printing sectors as it moves more into marketing, software and cross-media services to take print applications to a new level.

Lissenburg has moved from Nuance Communications, where he was senior vice-president of worldwide sales for imaging for three years. Prior to that he worked for EFI for 14 years where he was latterly vice-president of worldwide OEM Sales.

“There are huge new opportunities within industrial and commercial printing markets which we seek to capitalise on,” said Lissenburg.

“As we continue to grow our unique approaches into the high-end commercial print and industrial markets, it is key that we provide customers with insight and business tools to enable them to capture new market opportunities.

“The Professional Print Division aims to expand its digital printing business by leveraging its technologies to meet the need for high-mix, small-quantity variable production and short lead times, and by offering solutions to enhance printing operation efficiency.”

Konica Minolta has moved more into industrial markets recently with the launch of its AccurioJet KM-1 UV inkjet sheetfed press and bizhub Press C71cf on-demand label printer.

The company said it is looking to replicate its success in the mid-production colour printing sector to gain leadership in the industrial printing market.

While applications such as labels and packaging are the focus of its industrial research, the company said it also continues to focus as much as ever on its traditional markets and looks at each client’s production to determine the right mix of its systems or devices that it could offer.