At the digi:media fair Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) and Ricoh Company, Ltd. (Ricoh) confirm the start of sales of the combined digital and offset solution for the graphic arts industry. On the Heidelberg booth using the theme HEI Flexibility visitors will explore seamless print production, starting with a web-to-print front-end, utilizing digital and offset printing technology as well as professional Postpress production for mailing and book production.

Heidelberg's global rollout of the joint offering with Ricoh starts in Germany and the UK

digi:media marks the start of Heidelberg's sales in the German and UK market, followed shortly by France and Switzerland. By rounding off the offset portfolio with the new Ricoh ProTM C901 Graphic Arts Edition - including toner and services - Heidelberg is providing its clients with the combination of best-in-class offset, including Anicolor technology, and now also market-leading digital printing technology. Using both technologies, customers are able to offer variable data printing and shorter runs, next to their established cost-effective and high-end quality offset printing.

"I'm pleased to announce that both Ricoh and Heidelberg are moving fast to implement our global cooperation. The Heidelberg organizations in Germany and the UK are well prepared to start offering our combined solution. The joint training activities for Account Managers, Digital Sales Specialists and Application Engineers are close to being completed," says Bernhard Schreier, CEO of Heidelberg. "Nearly 100 employees have been trained, and due to the fact that we have had strong interest and positive feedback from our customer base, those colleagues are already in close customer interaction."

Simon Sasaki, Corporate Executive Vice President & General Manager of the Production Printing Business Group, Ricoh Company, Ltd, says, "Together, Ricoh and Heidelberg are working to a play a leading role in opening up new opportunities for print service providers, offering a seamless way for them to achieve their goals of a more flexible, productive and profitable future. It's a fresh approach that will help our customers add value to their customers, both now and into the future."

For the global rollout Heidelberg will follow a sequential approach in order to guarantee the highest available service level to its customer base. Well-known global tradeshows such as GraphExpo (US) or IGAS (JP) will mark the introduction of the Ricoh Pro C901 Graphic Arts Edition by Heidelberg to specific regions. Both companies are working on the rollout for Asian market, followed by North America, China and Latin America this year. The Eastern European market is targeted to rollout by Drupa 2012, closing the worldwide process.

As effective from 1st of April 2011, Dr. Christian Compera (51) will be responsible for the newly created Business Area Digital at Heidelberg. Compera is part of the Heidelberg team since 1990 and was working in different management positions before.

Heidelberg and Ricoh are committed to deliver a value-added offering which drives long term profitability for their customers. Both companies' future plans include integration with Heidelberg's industry standard workflow solution in the graphic arts industry, Prinect, as well as joint development activities for future printing applications.

Integrated print job shows the possibilities available today

The Centerpiece of the Heidelberg booth (Hall 06 / B45) is the live demonstration of an integrated print job featuring communication examples for a Golf Resort hotel. This communication package shows in a practical way how digital print and offset print work perfectly together to meet the print buyers and their end customers' needs.

On the neighbouring booth (Hall 06/ B50) Ricoh will also show the production capabilities of the Pro C901 Graphic Arts Edition as part of its portfolio. Ricoh will present solutions for transpromo and personalised direct mail for one-to-one marketing campaigns. Visitors will also see mailroom solutions and software tools for digital input and output management.

Environmental printing for short-run color

The practical demonstrations of hybrid production will enable visitors to find out how they can achieve economic success with short-run print applications. Furthermore Heidelberg decided to make its entire tradeshow presence at digi:media carbon-neutral. This measure covers the whole carbon footprint, including the assembly and dismantling phases, the trade show personnel's travel to the fairground, as well as the paper used in the practical demonstrations for visitors. The corresponding CO2 emissions have been calculated to a total amount of 11,8 tons and will be compensated according the Gold Standard by supporting a climate protection project in New Caledonia.

The Speedmaster SM 52 Anicolor machine being displayed at digi:media is an ideal example of how to harmonize ecological and economical efforts at the same time thanks to its ability to reduce the startup waste by nearly 90 percent and the corresponding make-ready time by approximately 40 percent.

Ricoh is also committed to reducing its overall environmental impacts globally and is on track to reduce its environmental impact by 88% by 2050 compared to 2000. In 2011 Ricoh was also recognised by for the seventh consecutive year, as one of the "Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World".