Ken Umeda, president of Konica Minolta Canada

‘‘Prior to the merger, Konica and Minolta were second-tier companies. But after the merger, by putting our strengths together to compensate for our weaknesses, we had the capability to move to tier one,’’ says Umeda, who has been living in Canada for six years.

‘‘This means having strong brand recognition among the public and becoming a top three player in our product categories. This is why, internally, I have set a slogan for Konica Minolta in Canada this year — ‘Take it to the top.’ I think it sums up our goals nicely,’’ he adds.

Before the merger, 90 percent of Minolta’s sales were direct market while 90 percent of Konica’s were wholesale. Now, the company has 33 direct branch locations, 800 employees and over 100 dealer locations across Canada, the largest sales and service network for any one company in its industry.

Konica Minolta has also streamlined its product portfolio in line with its objectives.

‘‘We are focusing on color business solutions as the market has changed from digital to color. Due to our excellent color technology and the relative newness of the market, we have the opportunity to become a top player from the very beginning. At this moment, we are very much ahead of the competition in terms of the availability of color products. Industrywide, the percentage of color products to other products is 10 percent to 15 percent while with Konica Minolta it is at 30,’’ says Umeda.

‘‘Last June, we launched our first production printer. We have big plans for this segment and introduced new products in December 2006 during the Print World exhibition in Toronto,’’ he adds.

‘‘Our future models will all be color; no more black and white. We want to be known as the color experts. What we have to do to take us to the top is grow by 15 percent in 2007 and reach 20 percent market share in the color segment, which is equivalent to being No. 1. We are almost there,’’ he also says.

www.konicaminolta.ca