With machinery on its way to Morgana’s Milton Keynes headquarters now, the UK-based post-press kit manufacturer will greatly increase the range of Uchida post-press equipment it can offer to clients.

Prior to the confirmation of the deal in April, Uchida had a single UK-based salesperson operating under the company name UMG, importing machines individually as ordered by customers. Morgana will now take on the full remit of UMG and its employee has transferred to the company.

Having already been selling a handful of Uchida products – including the AeroCut cutter range – Morgana will now add a raft of counters and batchers, joggers, bookletmakers, folders and paper drills from Uchida that complement its own manufacturing output.

“We have had a long-term association with Uchida by distributing some of their smaller products,” said Morgana vice president of offline business Ray Hillhouse. “This ongoing business has led to this new deal that will reduce lead times for our clients’ orders.

“UMG did not store imported machines, but we will be bringing in the full selection from Japan in order to speed up the time from which an order is made to when a delivery is done.

“None of Uchida’s machines have an exact match in our own portfolio which makes them a perfect fit and they have some exciting innovations – such as their Countron AT paper counter whose technology has been increasingly demanded among our customers. It complements our range very well.”

Alongside the Countron, which can handle substrates up to 400gsm at sizes up to A0, the range will encompass a full range of joggers including the AJ-740i which takes sheets up to 330x450mm and the U-Booklet bookletmaker which automatically folds and staples documents up to SRA3 on stocks from 64-300gsm.

The AeroFold Plus, which can produce up to 18,000 folds/hr on sheets up to SRA3, and the LA-EX4 drill, which has a maximum drilling thickness up to 65mm in drill sizes 3-14mm, round out Hillhouse’s select highlights from Morgana’s Uchida portfolio.

Uchida machines will continue to be traded under their own name as Hillhouse called the brand “well-recognised and established” in the industry.

Morgana will now work to set up a distribution network with Uchida’s other UK partners, whose machine supply will run through Morgana’s import channel.