Ricoh (8a B46) will start selling EFI’s wide-format 1.65m-wide H1625 LED roll/flatbed hybrid UV printer and the 2m-wide EFI Vutek HS2000 UV printer in the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Italy from next month, and from there the service is due to roll-out through South America, North America and Asia Pacific.

The expectation is that more models will be added depending on market demand in different territories in due course with decisions taken regionally.

The two companies see the deal as a natural progression.

EFI senior vice president worldwide sales and marketing Frank Mallozzi said: “EFI and Ricoh have had a relationship for over 20 years. We understand the market and we understand the customers but we don’t have the reach. Generally we sell to graphic arts sector dealers. We think it’s such a natural fit to extend our reach in new markets Ricoh is going to help us to do that.”

Ricoh expects the 6125 to be particularly popular with its customer base, which increasingly wants it to be a “one-stop shop”.

Ricoh corporate vice president business solutions group Tadashi Furushima said: “We only have entry-level wide-format machine, the 1.6m-wide latex L4160.”

Furushima said currently 1% of Ricoh’s turnover is from wide-format sales but Ricoh wanted to grow that to double digits by the next Drupa in three years’ time.

The deal was signed after after six months’ negotiations between the ¥2.231tr turnover Japanese manufacturer Ricoh and $882.5m-turnover US-headquartered EFI.

Mallozzi added: “We hope this relationship is going to continue to evolve.”

John Blyth, market development manager at Ricoh Europe said Ricoh would target “the HP base, the acqueous base” where customers were looking to move to the next segment. “We think it will benefit both parties but most of all we think it will benefit our clients,” he said.