OREANDA-NEWS. April 06, 2016. Konica Minolta, Inc. (Konica Minolta) today announced that it has signed an agreement with MGI Digital Graphic Technology (MGI), the leading decoration printing equipment manufacturer based in France, to acquire additional stake in MGI, enhancing the financial and strategic alliance between the companies since January 2014. Leveraging the alliance, Konica Minolta will further strengthen its industrial printing business.

Objectives

Enhancing the alliance with MGI with the additional stake, Konica Minolta aims to meet the following objectives:

  • By utilizing skilled R&D power to develop unique products fulfilling customer needs in the digital professional printing market, Konica Minolta will further accelerate its initiatives for application development in the special printing systems including package printing and 3D component printing.
  • In response to the needs for decoration printing in the label and package space, Konica Minolta’s enhancement in the product line through synergy creation, including joint development with MGI, will give the company a solid and strong presence within the digital package printing market and drive expansion in the growth field of production printing (PP).

Additional Stake

Konica Minolta intends to acquire 30.5% of MGI’s shares in April 2016, whereby Konica Minolta will hold 40.5% in total, including the existing stake (10%).

Background

Since 2003, Konica Minolta has focused on the PP business as a growth driver and invested in technology and product development, as well as acquisitions and alliances, to create a market for revenue growth and a greater expansion in the scope of business. During the past decade, Konica Minolta’s PP business has increased five-fold with global business development as the leader in color production field.

In addition to a recent trend of digitalization in the printing market, short-run print production of many items has been rapidly on the rise in label and packaging market that has kept increasing and expects a steady growth into the future.

Having started the financial and strategic alliance with MGI in 2014, Konica Minolta has added MGI’s output equipment including hot foil stamping and embossing jobs to its product line in response to the digitalization needs in the professional printing market.

Overview of MGI

Company name MGI Digital Technology
Headquarters Fresnes, France
Founded 1982
Number of employees 211 (Consolidated)
Business Manufacturing and sales of digital printers
Sales  34.4 million euro  (FY2014)

Major products of MGI

JETvarnish 3D - Spot UV Coating

The JETvarnish 3D takes digital spot UV coating to a new dimension, featuring increased throughput for flat spot UV jobs and amazing 3D raised effects.

iFOIL - Digital Embossing and Hot Foil Stamping

Through a revolutionary digital process, the iFOIL eliminates the need for films, dies and makeready, allowing you to produce hot foil stamping and embossing jobs from one to thousands of sheets with both very high profitability and ease of use.

Under the brand proposition “Giving Shape to Ideas,” Konica Minolta will deliver customer-centric and highly value-added products and solutions to enhance the corporate value of the entire Konica Minolta Group.