Fuji has started manufacturing graphic arts film for European customers at its production site in Tilburg, Holland, in a bid to improve customer service.

It has also opened a new facility for the coating and finishing of recording film at the plant, enabling it to handle European demand for film.

The firm previously supplied film to European distributors and customers from its main plants in Greenwood, South Carolina, and Ashigara in Japan, but lead times were four to five months. The group now hopes to reduce delivery to between two and three months from order.

It doesnt mean we had a problem, but we wanted to improve the situation, said Hans Walla, marketing manager electronic imaging for Fuji Photo Film Europe.

Fuji has invested 14m (NLG50m) in the finishing line, which should create about 50 jobs.

It has already applied for about 60 new patents for the facility, according to Hirofumi Yanagida, president of Fuji Photo Film Europe.

The group said it had confidence in the future of film despite CTPs increasing penetration into the pre-press market.

The film line is Fujis latest step to bring products nearer to customers. It started manufacturing thermal CTP plates for the European market at Tilburg in July.

The group also announced several new product launches. At Print 01 it is showing the Celebrant Extreme VS workflow, which supports PDF 1.4 and PostScript workflows.

It includes Adobe in-RIP trapping and internet file transfer, and offers ICC colour management from scan to press.

Story by Gordon Carson