Fujifilm and Heidelberg Middle East announced their extended cooperation with the ‘Sunshine Project’. A recent meeting called upon by both the company’s briefed media and customers about the terms and specifications of the project. Explaining on the newly signed relationship, Mazen Wafic El Tibi, Deputy General Manager and Sales and Marketing Director of Heidelberg Middle East said, “We have been working closely with Fuji in Saudi Arabia for over the past 26 years. Through this cooperation, Heidelberg will from now on be Fuji’s distributor in the Gulf region. As of now, we aim to serve the markets of UAE, Oman, Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The official launch of the project was done on January 1st, 2013, and during the next few weeks we will be visiting our customers and explaining to them about the services that we provide.”
The joint venture eventually aims to provide all the graphic art products of Fujifilm but as of now, it will include the pre press solutions for the Newspaper segment.
Yasufumi Morimoto, Senior Vice President, Graphics Division, Fujifilm Europe Middle East and Africa, Masatsugu Naito, Managing Director of Fuji Middle East and Africa, Tadayoshi Murayo, Sales and Marketing, Fujifilm Middle East, Zeid Al-Jehni, General Manager of the joint venture and Regional Director of the Central region of Heidelberg chaired the meeting. Saad Saleh Alazwari, CEO of Saudi Printing and Packaging Company, was a special guest at the event. Saudi Printing and Packaging is considered to be the largest customer of Heidelberg for Fuji plates in the entire gulf region.
Later, Masatsugu Naito of Fujifilm thanked the audience and explained that the partnership was part of a strategic decision that aimed to expand their graphic business in the Middle East countries. Morimoto then detailed about the mode of operations of Fujifilm and its global position in the graphic segment. “Currently we have 3 operating segments, which are imaging solutions, information solution and document solution. The company has a turnover of over 25.8 billion US$ and has an operating profit of 1.5 billion US$. Fujifilm has over 240 subsidiaries all over the world, and our main aim is to create environmentally sustainable products. We offer process-less, low chemistry and process free plates and our brands offer the highest quality with less maintenance.”
He added, “Last drupa we have announced our improved focus on the digital printing market and have introduced new products in the commercial, packaging and wide format segments. Today almost 36% of the global market share in CtP is held by Fujifilm.”
Then it was the turn of Zeid Al-Jehni to give in the details about Heidelberg ME. “Heidelberg Middle East is a joint venture between Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG and Juffali Group, a major industrial and commercial business group in Saudi Arabia.” Talking about the Juffali Group, he said, “The Juffali group consists of 38 different companies and they are into sectors like engineering, manufacturing, distribution, sales and services etc. A multi-million dollar company, we have over 12,000 employees working in our establishment.”
Mentioning the details about the partnership with Fujifilm, he said, “Heidelberg ME with this cooperation will be now the largest consumer provider in the region.”
Meanwhile Morimoto added, “One of the reasons for the partnership was to secure our positions in the market. Through the past 26 years we have learnt to provide good service to our customers. Today, digital platform is gaining importance and this will provide an opportunity for us to launch the Fuji Jet Press to our customers in the region.”
Mazen El-Tibi added on, “We offer commercial, offset, newspaper and workflow solutions under one roof, which gives the end user the choice to come to one address. We will be the genuine complete prepress, press and postpress solution provider for the commercial, newspaper and packaging sector. We have a complete range of products in the consumables, inks and blankets and we also offer complete maintenance and spare part support.”
He detailed, “The strong presence of Fuji graphics in the region will support our technical and sales teams. We have the best distribution network that has branches in Jebel Ali, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and dedicated sub dealers in Jordan and Yemen.”
Recently, Fujifilm had completed a big contract with Saudi Printing and Packaging Company, where they had supplied 9 units of Luxel News 120 CtPs, Glunz and Jensen processors along with a 24 x 7 service warranty. The deal also included a plate contract for 660,000 square metres and the provision of pre press chemicals.
