Mitsubishi-Ryobi new joint venture to leverage the power of two

Six-months after signing the letter of intent for business alliance, the board of directors of Japanese press manufacturing giants, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Printing & Packaging and Ryobi have approved the proposal of a joint venture and implementation of business integration in the field of sheetfed offset printing presses.

21 Jun 2013 | By PrintWeek India

The new entity, RM Limited will be set up on 31 July, 2013 as a preparatory company and will be subsequently changed to Ryobi MHI Graphic Technology (RMHIGT). Operations will commence from 1 January, 2014 and will have 450 employees. The new RMHIGT business will have a 60:40 ownership split in which Ryobi’s will be majority stake.

In creating their new venture, the two companies on one hand hopes to stave off the intensifying global competition and on the other hand develop themselves into a leading global company in the printing press industry by meeting customer expectations.

Though the companies anticipate demand for printing machinery to strengthen in the emerging economies and for high specification products to grow further in mature economies, it will be interesting to see how the two companies leverage their respective strengths to achieve their common goal. The RMHIGT expects a turnover in 2014 to be in the region of ¥30bn (£200m), with a pre tax profit of ¥1.5bn.

In India, Mitsubishi is represented by New Delhi-based Provin Technos and Ryobi is represented by Bengaluru-based Indo European Machinery (IEM). When PrintWeek India contacted the two representives, both were unavailable for comment.