The manufacturer's new colour machines are being targeted at customers in the commercial print sector and offer print speeds of 60ppm and 71ppm respectively.

Designed to move Konica Minolta into the higher speed and volume sector for colour print, the bizhub Press range complements the company's Pro series of machines for CRDs, copy shops and smaller printers.

Its C6000 and C7000 machines can print at a resolution up to 1,200dpi and handle monthly volumes of around 330,000. A range of online finishing options are also available, including large capacity stacker, hole punching, folding, stapling, saddle stitching and perfect binding.

The machines also use Konica Minolta’s Simitri HD+ polymerised toner, which is claimed to offer improved image quality on low-temperature on thick substrates up to 300gsm.

Pauline Brooks, group product manager for the production print division at Konica Minolta UK, said: "When Konica Minolta launched its first professional colour digital system in 2006 it was a game changer for the market, providing affordable digital colour for the CRD and commercial print sectors.

"Since then our competitors have been playing catch-up but the new bizhub Press C6000 and C7000 raise the bar yet again."

According to Brooks, the machines are also "clear evidence" if the manufacturer's leadership in colour production print.

"The systems offer outstanding image quality and image stability over long print runs, with output comparable to offset litho quality," she added.

The Konica Minolta bizhub Press C6000 and bizhub Press C7000 models are available now. The C6000 featuring scanner, additional paper feed unit, folding and punch unit and Booklet maker retails for £137,490 while the C7000 configuration is available for £146,564.