Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Ltd has been voted ‘Supplier of the Year’ by attendees of the BAPC (British Association for Print and Communications) annual conference. The award is in recognition of the Konica Minolta bizhub PRO range of digital production print systems coupled with the service, care and support it provides for customers.

DURABLE Hunke & Jochheim GmbH & Co. KG has acquired the business of Idealplast from Ensto Ensek AS of Finland, effective 1 January 2010.

Last year, Samsung announced that it had set itself the ambitious goal of becoming the world’s leading print brand by 2012.

Competition in the print market is fierce, but when a company like Samsung makes such a bold statement it must be taken seriously. After all, Samsung has a legacy of rapidly growing its businesses to become a leader in its chosen industries, and the company has invested heavily.

There is no doubt that 2009 was a difficult year for the stationery and office product markets – especially for consumables. Sales of OEM toner consumables dropped by an astonishing 24.9% in the first half of 2009 and OEM inkjet consumables didn’t fare much better, with a sharp decline of 19.2% during the same period. (Source: IDC EMEA Consumables Tracker)

DCI/Jet Tec – the UK’s leading manufacturer of compatible and remanufactured inkjet cartridges – has the widest range of inkjet cartridges and laser toners to complement every home and office printer.

Each and every remanufactured product is tested to the highest level before leaving the DCI/Jet Tec factory in Boston, Lincolnshire, so customers will be safe in the knowledge that they are buying a reliable, quality product.

Product Line Services (UK) has launched its "See Differently" campaign which is designed to encourage people to see how they can reduce cartridge costs without compromising quality. Genuink and Re-Gen compatible and remanufactured cartridges are between 48 and 68 per cent cheaper than OEMs and feature a ‘no-quibble' money-back guarantee.

Regarding the products themselves, Product Line Services has made a number of recent announcements.

With so much emphasis on green issues these days it's important for customers to realise that it is not ‘how green are our printers', a commonly asked question, it's ‘how green is the usage of them'?

Ricoh has launched a new A4 mono laser printer. The Aficio SP 4100nl's 400MHz processor and 192MB memory are designed for print speeds of up to 31ppm.

Philips has added three new multi-function products. The LaserMFD 6050, 6050W and 6080 combine fax, printer, scanner and copier and boast up to 40 per cent lower toner consumption for cost saving and eco efficiency.

Sharp has introduced two new Frontier multifunction printers. The MX-C311 and MX-C381 A4 colour MFP products feature a sleek, distinctive design which compliments contemporary office settings. Both printers offer digital colour copier, printer and scanner functions.

Lexmark International has introduced two new series of colour laser printers and colour laser multifunction products (MFPs).

Canon UK has announced six new A4 MFPs designed to deliver faster print speeds (up to 24 pages per minute) and standard duplex printing, thus promoting more efficient paper use. The range also offers colour scanning. The send function sends scanned documents to an email address, FTP site or database.