On January 1, KPG and Xerox ended the reseller arrangement in the United States under which KPG was authorized to sell Xerox mid-range and entry level digital color equipment and related products (View Press Release). Xerox continues to market to its customers the Kodak Polychrome Graphics Matchprint Professional Server as a color front end for the Xerox DocuColor 12.

Industry analysts opined that Enovation, already with their own Xerox agreement, would now expand and take over the territories covered by KPG. That deal was announced today. Creo has a similar reseller agreement with Xerox. (See sidebar below.)

Analysts also speculated that KPG would resell products more closely aligned with Eastman Kodak’s assets like NexPress presses and equipment from the recently acquired Scitex Digital Printing.

Where there is speculation, there is an opportunity for an interview. WTT recently spoke with KPG's John Schloff, Staff Vice President, Digital Printing. KPG has a strong reputation with their printer customers and solid partnerships with companies outside the Eastman family who want to reach KPG's customers. We wanted to uncover more detail about these partnerships, the Xerox break-up and get KPG's perspective on where they plan to go from here.

WTT: John, when we last interviewed you, KPG was just launching its involvement in the DI press business with the launch of the KPG DirectPress 5034 DI. You expressed enthusiasm about the Xerox relationship. Now, five months later, KPG has announced the end of its reseller relationship with Xerox for digital printing systems. What happened?

JS: The last time we spoke, I shared with you how important it is for KPG to support our customers in transitioning from traditional workflows to digital workflows. This is still critically important to us. Due to a number of industry and partner dynamics, we felt that it was best for our customers in the long term to end the reseller relationship with Xerox. This is one action in a series of planned actions that will enable KPG to best serve our customers.