Rapid’s Memjet-powered XL220 label press
RTI Digital will now supply Memjet ink to Rapid’s label printer customers.
Memjet’s US private equity owners terminated the agreement with Australian label printing manufacturer Rapid Packaging, as The Recycler previously reported. While Memjet “refused to say” why due to “commercial confidentiality”, Rapid’s Founder Bruce Mansell stated there had “absolutely not” been any outstanding commercial liabilities, and that Rapid “have not been given any legitimate reason why” the agreement was cancelled.
Graphic Repro’s Andy McCourt also previously studied the situation, and stated that “there’s more to it than meets the eye […] only speculation exists” as to the real reasons behind the decision, but that “from all that I have in front of me […] I summarise in two words how it appears: it stinks”.
PrintWeek has now reported confirmation that RTI Digital now has the licence to supply Memjet’s inkjet cartridges to Rapid’s install base, with RTI Digital’s President Erik Norman stating that RTI “will be supplying the Rapid ink tanks to the current Rapid distribution partners.
“RTI’s interest and objective is in keeping the Rapid customers happy and to ensure they can keep running the Rapid presses with minimal disruption, and that includes supply pricing continuity. We have already reached a continuity plan with international distributors”.
Beswick also responded to McCourt’s suspicion that ink pricing may have been to blame, telling PrintWeek that “our pricing to OEMs supports a range of OEM pricing strategies including Rapid’s aggressive $500/litre, and still does. Moving to $1000/litre might drive up OEM margin or channel margin but would make no difference to Memjet as a technology supplier. Our pricing has changed little and is a fraction of the total price – whether we are talking about $500 or $1,000/litre.
“We have partners selling directly and through channels. We have partners selling at prices that drive growth/placements and others selling more value. Each device is different, each OEM is different, each market and channel is different. OEMs price as they see fit and generally have a CPP [cost per page] advantage vs. competition. Regardless, Memjet pricing is sufficient to drive profitability across a range of pricing strategies.”
Mason Daniel, Global Sales Manager for Rapid’s UK distributor Impression Technology Europe (ITE), also stated that “we’ve been working very hard behind the scenes at ITE to make sure there is no disruption to our customers and that it will be a very smooth transition. All our customers that have Rapid machines can have every confidence in the supply of not only existing products but also for future innovative products. The supply chain won’t be disrupted in any way, in fact our customers won’t notice a difference”.