Konica Minolta’s bustling CEC
Recently I joined print providers at Konica Minolta’s Client Engagement Center (CEC) in Ramsey, New Jersey, for an Industrial Print VIP Demo Event designed to blend strategic insight with live, hands-on technology demonstrations. The agenda balanced a packed morning of executive perspective and market analysis with afternoon rotations through production presses, digital embellishment platforms, and a focused ROI breakout session. Across the day, a consistent theme emerged: industrial and production print is shifting from commodity output to higher-value, highly automated platforms offering vast new levels of opportunity for revenue and creativity.
The CEC as proof point
The day opened with remarks from Sam Errigo, president and CEO of Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A, who framed the CEC as a tangible proof point of the company’s long-term commitment to industrial and production print. “We built this facility specifically for production and industrial print…we have about 8 million in inventory on the floor, plus the building, plus our staff; this place is open seven days a week,” he told attendees. For Errigo, that level of investment is essential because “big iron requires the touch, the feel…you have to look at how these machines operate, you have to understand who your technicians are, who your engineers are and who understands the workflow.”
Errigo also reminded the audience that while the company’s core MFP business remains important, industrial print is the fastest-growing part of its portfolio. Konica Minolta’s U.S. hardware revenue is roughly split between direct and dealer channels, with industrial print organized as its own business unit supported by dedicated teams. His message to attendees was clear: the company is “placing its bets early” in industrial print and intends to be the partner that helps dealers and customers “succeed, grow your business, and generate profit.”
Marketing muscle and CEC leadership
Following Errigo, Michael Mathé, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Americas, followed with a look at how the company is supporting industrial print growth from the marketing side. He emphasized that the CEC is not just a showroom but a hub for campaigns and digital programs focused specifically on production print (PP) and industrial print (IP). “We invest a lot of money in the creation of digital assets designed to generate business in this area,” Mathé said.
For channel partners, that emphasis on digital demand generation and content development aligns with the reality that selling industrial print is less about transactional hardware deals and more about longer-cycle solution engagements. Having a centralized resource like the CEC—complete with a director who lives in the demo environment every day—gives resellers a place to bring prospects for proof-of-concept conversations they might not be able to support on their own floors. That alignment between strategy, marketing, and operations set a useful context for the rest of the day and for the live demos that followed.
Platforms, white-glove support and application focus
Frank Mallozzi lays out the opportunity
As host of the event, Frank Mallozzi, president of industrial and production print, used his time on stage to connect the company’s product roadmap to the realities of commercial and industrial print operations. He traced Konica Minolta’s production-print journey back to 2005 and emphasized the importance of leveraging platforms as the company expanded into labels, inkjet, and embellishment. One example he cited was “taking the production engines, something that’s stable and supported, and converting that into a label device,” a strategy that allows customers to benefit from familiar, well-supported platforms as they move into new applications.
Mallozzi backed the platform story with hard numbers from the field. On the AccurioJet KM-1, he cited roughly 300 placements worldwide and about 1.9 billion pages produced, with Konica Minolta commanding about a 40 percent share in that marketplace. KM is also delivering 94 percent uptime in the market, backed by a contractual guarantee of 85 percent uptime. Mallozzi also highlighted a global base of 2,000 Accurio label devices and 1,300 embellishment systems, along with what he called the most important number: more than 550 people dedicated to industrial print, with a culture steeped in the fast-response mentality of the office technology side of the business.
For resellers, that “white-glove” model shows up in services such as color management expertise, business development support for application identification, and process engineers who can connect new devices into existing MIS and workflow infrastructures. Mallozzi underscored the stakes for generationally owned print businesses and framed Konica Minolta’s role as not just delivering equipment but helping customers avoid decisions that could negatively and materially impact their operations.
Marco Boer: from commodity print to “luxury” value
Keynote speaker Marco Boer, president of IT Strategies, stepped back from the vendor story to map out macro trends affecting industrial and production print. He acknowledged the pressure operators are under—from tariffs, geopolitical instability and rising input costs to unpredictable order volumes that put more and more pressure on print providers every day. His central prescription was clear: automation and smarter workflow are no longer optional.
“The only way to survive is to automate,” Boer said, describing a landscape where fully amortized offset presses can no longer keep up with shorter, more frequent jobs, and where profitability depends on tying digital presses, workflow and finishing into a tightly integrated platform. He urged printers and their partners to shift their mindset from chasing sheer volume to delivering what he called “luxury” print — not just embellishment, but “providing the right product at the right time” for specific audiences. For resellers, that framing aligns with the evolving role of industrial print as a value-creation tool rather than a commodity click engine, particularly in growth areas such as digitally printed books, direct mail, labels and embellishment. Boer characterized the current period as “the golden age of digital printing technology,” arguing that there is a lot of money to be made in this industry for those willing to invest in automation, workflow, analytics and application development. He also pointed to the increasing codependence between equipment vendors, software providers, finishing suppliers and their customers, suggesting that success will require more collaborative, consultative relationships than the traditional “box swap” model.
From presentations to pressroom: hands-on proof
The JetVarnish 3D Web 400 – Digital Embellishment for Labels
After the presentations and a customer panel, attendees moved into four demo rotations that put those themes into practice. On the production side, Konica Minolta highlighted platforms such as the AccurioJet 30000 and AccurioLabel 230 and 400, demonstrating how the same core technologies can support commercial print and entry-level label applications. Digital embellishment systems including the AccurioShine 3600, AlphaJET and JETvarnish 3D Web 400 underscored Boer’s “luxury” narrative by showing how foil, spot varnish and dimensional effects can extend beyond traditional long-run packaging into short-run, high-value jobs for brands and marketers.
John Dembia with the MGI JETvarnish 3D Web 400
A dedicated ROI session rounded out the day by addressing the practical questions resellers and operators are asking: where these systems best fit, which manufacturing pain points they can solve and how to model the business case around new applications. For the channel, the event offered a useful template: lead with education and market context, back it up with live demonstrations and data, and then connect the technology to specific revenue and margin opportunities.
Patricia Ames is president and senior analyst for BPO Media, which publishes The Imaging Channel and Workflow magazines. As a market analyst and industry consultant, Ames has worked for prominent consulting firms including KPMG and has more than 15 years experience in the imaging industry covering technology and business sectors. Ames has lived and worked in the United States, Southeast Asia and Europe and enjoys being a part of a global industry and community.