Buyers of Konica Minolta products in the GCC region contributed 86 per cent of the Middle East (excluding Africa)’s sales turnover of Dh275 million ($74.8 million) during 2013-2014, a senior official has said.

Katsuhisa Asari, general manager of Konica Minolta Middle East FZE, commented that the rise in GCC sales over the previous year was marginal.

Products enjoying most sales in the GCC area were colour office MFPs (multi-functional peripherals) and light production print equipment, the two recording a10 per cent year-on-year growth, the official said. The UAE and Saudi Arabia represented half of all the company’s sales.

About steps Konica Minolta is taking to boost its business in the GCC region, Asari said it would focus “on managed print services and a vertical approach to understand the need of clients to be better served.”

Globally, Konica Minolta announced strong financial results triggered by a rise in sales of 16 per cent year on year with sales records of more than Dh34 billion for the financial year 2013-2014. Operating in over 150 countries, Konica Minolta has retained its leading role in providing technologies for each of the business technologies, industrial business and healthcare segments.

“Konica Minolta’s wins of international awards such as the Red Dot Award have played an integral role in helping the company prove the strength of its products. This has helped Konica Minolta to grow the sales margin worldwide,” the company said in a statement.

Konica Minolta’s headquarters in Tokyo and (inset) Asari

Konica Minolta was awarded the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2014, earlier this year for its main products in the business technologies business: five models of the bizhub-series A3 colour MFPs  and two models of the bizhub-series A4 colour MFPs.

The impact of sales is apparent as A3 colour units were of the strongest sales performance throughout the year, with a main demand between mid- and high-speed models. Konica Minolta MFPs are regarded among the top revenue earners for the company.

Koichi Suzuki, managing director, Konica Minolta Business Solutions, Middle East, said, “Our implementations of structural reforms worked very well to strengthen our corporate structure. Such initiatives also improved our asset soundness. Our investment in strengthening Optimised Print Services (OPS) in growth countries, along with our aim to strengthen our business by investing in the human resources of our service business has positively impacted our growth stature.”

Konica Minolta Business Solutions Middle East FZE, based in Jebel Ali Dubai, UAE, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Konica Minolta, Inc, Tokyo, Japan. The company delivers services and distributes systems and solutions that fulfil all the requirements of the entire document life cycle for clients in the office and production printing area. Konica Minolta’s OPS concept combines consultancy, hardware, software implementation and service operation in order to enhance business process efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Its product range extends from colour and monochrome multifunctional and production printing systems, to laser printers and all-in-ones, and to management software that integrates devices seamlessly into work processes and IT environments.