Mitsubishi, Ryobi to Integrate Sheetfed Businesses

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Printing & Packaging Machinery, Ltd. and Ryobi Limited have signed a shareholder agreement to establish a joint venture and business integration of sheetfed offset presses. The signing took place in Japan following receipt of approval by the two companies’ boards of directors.

The corporate name will be RYOBI MHI Graphic Technology Ltd., with headquarters in Hiroshima, Japan. The board of directors will include three from Ryobi and two from MHI-PPM, which reflects Ryobi's 60 percent ownership and MHI-PPM's 40 percent.

This agreement, the companies say, stems from the shrinking demand for sheetfed presses, especially in the developed countries, due to the global economic crisis. This downturn has led both companies to promote internal structural reforms to sustain their market competitiveness and financial soundness.

Since January, MHI-PPM and Ryobi have been studying the feasibility of establishing a business alliance in the field of sheetfed offset presses to improve competitiveness, enhance scale of operations and solidify their management base. The agreement announced yesterday finalizes plans to establish a joint venture in a quest to achieve significant synergy effects including product line-up enhancement, expansion of product development capabilities, production cost reductions, and improvement in sales and service networks.

The commercial printing industry presently anticipates demand for printing machinery to strengthen in the emerging economies. Simultaneously demand for higher specification products is expected to grow further within the mature economies.

In creating their new joint venture, MHI-PPM and Ryobi seek to prevail against intensifying global competition and build a stronger presence in the global market. They also aim for the new entity to develop into a leading global company in the printing press industry by meeting customer expectations and providing innovative, high-quality products and outstanding services to the market.