“We’re going to have to fly them in, we haven’t got time to bring them in by sea and Japan is going to have to ramp up serious production,” said Mimaki EMEA general manager of marketing Mike Horsten.
The company is exhibiting in Hall 1, stand E15.
The 110m2/hr UJV55-320 features a unique backlit preview lighting system and is available in four or six colours. Prices start from €68,000. The first machines are expected to arrive in late April.
“We knew we had something special on our hands and we knew it would take off here. It has a very competitive price point and strong market demand, but we didn’t expect this level of success within days of launching,” said Horsten.
He said the machine was the result of two years’ work to identify what the market needed from a 3.2m-wide UV machine.
“The feedback is exactly what you see on our stand,” he added.
Resellers from Spain, UK, Italy, Portugal, Germany and France, amongst others, have all ordered machines according to Horsten.
Stuart Cole, national sales manager for industrial products, Hybrid Services. Mimaki’s UK and Ireland distributor said: “We are seeing unprecedented levels of interest in the Mimaki UJV55-320 from UK customers, and we anticipate it having a similar level of impact in the grand format roll-to-roll UV market as the JFX200 had on the flatbed market.”
Horsten said that by the time the show closes orders could exceed 50.
“And our resellers wouldn’t be buying if they didn’t have customers ready for them – these aren’t the sort of machines you just buy for stock.”
The firm also sold its first 180m2/hr TS500P-3200 sublimation transfer printer to a French reseller within 15 minutes of the show’s doors opening on Tuesday.
“I think that this will end up being the best ever Fespa Digital for Mimaki, we’re collecting a lot of leads and selling a lot of machines and that’s what these shows are all about,” stated Horsten.
