The new centre was officially opened yesterday (4 November), and will host some 700 customers from 20 countries at a series of open days over the next fortnight.

Dr Peter Williams, Ricoh Europe executive vice-president and head of the production printing group, said it was “the next phase in our amazing journey” since the firm entered the production print market at Drupa 2008.

“I believe we are at the cusp of a new dawn in the growth of digital printing,” he said. “Our offering is truly resonating with production print clients – Ricoh is the major force in production printing today.”

The firm claims it now has more than 50% of the production colour cut-sheet market in western Europe, and also has a market-leading position in cut-sheet mono. It is number two in colour inkjet web systems.

Telford is Ricoh’s largest manufacturing facility in Europe, and employs almost 700 staff.

The customer experience centre is equipped with its latest models, including the just-launched Pro C7100 and Pro C9100 cut-sheet devices, and new high-resolution, high-volume inkjet web the Pro VC60000.

Established kit such as the InfoPrint 5000 inkjet range is also installed at the facility.

“This is not a showroom, it’s a shared manufacturing facility. Clients can use it as a proof of concept test site, and we welcome clients and partners here to extend the boundaries of what’s possible,” Williams added.

The firm also used the occasion to announced two new software products. Ricoh has a stake in US MIS manufacturer Avanti Systems, and has now added the Avanti Slingshot cloud-based MIS to its product portfolio.

Also new is a product management tool, TotalFlow BatchBuilder, which allows jobs to be batched dynamically based on a variety of parameters, such as format, substrate, due date, or finishing requirements.