Effective immediately, Horizon will offer to the Japanese market Tech-ni-Fold’s creasing, micro-perforating and cutting kit, which is compatible with all major makes and models of folding, stitching and binding machines.

Tech-ni-Fold director Graham Harris told Printweek: “We’ve known about each other for a long time and crossed paths in different areas of print finishing. There’s always been a mutual respect, but we’ve found a good way of working together to start off in Japan, Horizon’s domestic market, and see how things go.

“We respect them, they treat us with the utmost respect, and we get on really well. We’ve had plenty of meetings during lockdown, so you’ve got two forward-thinking companies who are not limited to what’s happening around us. I’m proud that we can talk about moving forward in such a positive way.”

Susumu Miyazaki, managing director of Horizon Japan, added: “Tech-ni-Fold’s sophisticatedly value-added solutions can satisfy the customers in Japan who always require high quality products.”

Harris said Tristan Owen, Tech-ni-Fold’s international business manager, had been instrumental in the discussions and negotiations with Horizon, and had headed up many meetings, including contract agreement and training Horizon’s team.

Since the company was established in 1999, Tech-ni-Fold has sold more than 110,000 units of its Tri-Creaser, which is described as “the world’s first and only rotary retro-fit creasing solution proven to quickly and easily eliminate the fibre-cracking effect by its patented softer creasing application”.

Tech-ni-Fold is also gearing up for the launch of a new addition to its CreaseStream portfolio in the coming weeks.

The FoldStream is a multi-finishing plow fold machine which the company said is ideal for greetings card production. It plans to reveal more details about the new creasing and folding device in the coming weeks.