Kemtek Imaging Systems hosted an event at Melrose Arch on 22 February to celebrate its new partnership with Canon South Africa in which Kemtek will distribute Canon’s digital printing presses.
Part of the Canon offering from Kemtek now includes the following devices: Canon imagePRESS C270, imagePRESS V1000, imagePRESS V900 Series, varioPRINT 140 Series QUARTZ, and varioPRINT 6180 TITAN.
During the evening, senior members from Kemtek and Canon were available to outline numerous aspects of the new partnership, including how it will serve new and existing customers, as well as filling in a ‘gap’ for Kemtek customers, and how Canon’s ‘kyosei’ culture and corporate philosophy aligns so well with that of Kemtek.
‘Kyosei’ conveys the company’s dedication to seeing all people, regardless of culture, customs, language or race, harmoniously living and working together in happiness into the future. Current factors related to economies, resources and the environment make realising kyosei difficult. Canon strives to eliminate these factors through corporate activities rooted in kyosei.
‘Right from the very first engagements between Kemtek and Canon, there was a lot of synergy between the teams,’ said Kemtek’s Managing Director, Graham Comins. ‘The cultural alignment between the teams has been fantastic and throughout the discussions, the negotiations, and the plans that we put together, there was always a collaborative approach to solving problems, and to identifying and addressing any issues in how we were going to take the Canon products to market. It’s certainly been a very positive interaction between us.’
‘Kemtek has been in the printing industry for many years, and in that time the range of products that we have brought on and aligned ourselves to has created an open-end market for us, specifically in the commercial printing sector, and we realised that we did not have a range of presses that was able to address those customers, fulfill their needs, and help them to grow into bigger and more productive businesses. The Canon range we’ve selected and will be bringing to market certainly fills that gap really well, and gives our customers the opportunity to grow, develop and enhance their businesses.’
Mags Govender, Kemtek’s head of print said, ‘Kemtek distribute Epson large format printing and signage equipment, primarily to the print shops and smaller print companies. And on the other side of that scale we distribute HP Indigo products, which are distributed to larger commercial printers. We found that there was an evolution in the market, where we’re finding that more smaller businesses are looking for complex and more dynamic printing solutions.’
‘Some of the larger printers also need efficient and versatile presses that can run some of their digital work. So Canon’s range of equipment answers that gap that we have, in that, we are able to start supplying entry level Canon commercial digital presses to print houses and print shops that require more complex solutions, as well as satisfy some of our existing print companies that are looking for more versatile and efficient printing equipment for their hardware and the solutions that they print out. The Canon range fits perfectly in-between our signage and large format printing and of course, our HP Indigo equipment. The Canon range of equipment addresses a gap in the market that we’ve never been able to service before, and we’re now able to do so,’ added Govender.
Canon South Africa’s managing director, David Preston said, ‘The partnership really started with an informal meeting with Comins in 2022, and we realised that the way that Canon operates as an organisation is very similar to Kemtek. The values that we share as an organisation are very similar. It’s turned into a great conversation, and it’s taken us a couple of years to get there, but I’m convinced that Canon can make a big difference to Kemtek in terms of the product offering that we have, but also importantly in terms of the service partnership we offer Kemtek as well. With the range of products and services that we have to offer, complemented by some excellent technical back up from Kemtek, and some great marketing activities from Kemtek, (it) will be a successful partnership in the future.’
Canon South Africa’s senior marketing manager, Tunca Rodoplu, added, ‘From the first day it was always about the companies. They put the people, the service and the customers at the heart of the operation. That’s where Kemtek and Canon clicked. About two years ago, we started a discussion, and it was from the first meeting that the cultures were aligned. The people, the service, and then the high quality products – that’s how the chemistry fits together.’
Kemtek’s Jason Annetts, Business Development Manager, commented on the Canon range, ‘It targets a specific customer subset within our current install base at Kemtek. We’ve got the HP Indigo customer, and a channel that supports that, and we’ve got the large format printing channel that is handled on the Epson side. Canon is a sweet spot that sits in the middle, and what we find with the range that we have selected is we can now address the market ranging from large office right down to the enterprise customer, attorneys, and right down to manufacture and mining. ‘Inside of that, it’s not only focusing on the light production or large production customer, which is our traditional ‘bread and butter’ customer, but we can now also look at customers that are brand agencies that are looking after multiple customers or companies underneath them, as well as print brokers.’
‘In the past, print brokers would start up in the business, and they would then outsource that work to the larger companies, and with the current range, we can now get them set up and then sort of evolve them or take them through the range of printers. So not only can we do light production and large production, we can also do your large office as well as your enterprise. But to reiterate, we are not an office automation company, and we’re looking at companies that are doing large volume prints, looking for a high degree of accuracy, cooler running machines, and lower turnaround times in-between their different applications,’ added Annetts.
KEMTEK IMAGING SYSTEMS
+27 11 624 8021
jasona@kemtek.co.za
www.kemtek.co.za
