The partnership means RGB will now be selling the OKI ColorPainter E-64S, which became commercially available in January, along with the rest of the ColorPainter family. An E-64S has been shipped to its Berkshire showroom for demonstration purposes.
RGB becomes the second UK supplier to be distributing the new ColorPainter, which it is selling for £12,995, along with Whitchurch, Shropshire-based supplier Signmaster Systems.
Managing director Ben Randall said: “We have known the ColorPainter and the heritage of that machine for a long time. It’s always screamed production, reliability and high build quality, which we really like, and we’ve been looking to get something a bit wider and expand our outdoor offering on the success of what we’ve done with Roland.
“We wanted something more complementary than competitive and the wide-format OKIs fit that bill.”
The 1.6m-wide six-colour E-64S can handle substrates including back-/front-lit media, technical textile, wallpaper, canvas, hard PVC, banner and vinyl. Printing at maximum speeds of 22.9sqm/hr at 1,080dpi resolution, it has an optional ioniser for printing indoors.
“The ink is amazing, that’s what really sold it to me. The new ink types that they’ve developed have a huge colour gamut for a six-colour, and to be honest the speed of it is so quick, along with the build quality, it’s a good fit for us,” added Randall.
OKI graphic arts business development manager Bhupinder Bharat said he was excited to have RGB as a partner and that it was the perfect fit for OKI’s wide-format division.
OKI is looking to step up its presence in the UK’s wide-format market, after it acquired wide-format manufacturer Seiko I Infotech in October 2015. Last month, it launched two new Teriostar wide-format printers, the LP-1040MF and LP-2060MF, although Randall said that seven-staff RGB would not be taking on any more machines for distribution for the time being.
RGB has also been reselling a range of SRA3 OKI machines, the Pro9541 and Pro9431, for the last six months, along with Canon and Roland wide-format kit.
