Ricoh to acquire ColorGATE Digital Output Solutions GMBH

Ricoh Company Ltd have announced that they will buy ColorGATE Digital Output Solutions GMBH, a leading software provider in the printing industry with a specific competence in colour management.

Ricoh’s decision to buy ColorGate is intended to strengthen Ricoh’s growing industrial print business. It is estimated that the acquisition will be completed by the end of November 2018.
ColorGATE are a German-based company that was founded in 1997 and has been supporting the printing industry for more than 20 years by offering software for the wide-format and industrial printing markets. ColorGATE has unique colour management technology to support printing and decorating a wide range of materials utilised for packaging, floor and wall coverings, textiles and signage. The company is a leading provider of performance optimised colour management and workflow software to standardise and automate expanding digital print markets that includes textiles and décor.

In February 2018, Ricoh announced its growth strategy plan ‘Ricoh Ignite’. This plan will reinforce its value offering by growing its printing technology portfolio. The decision to invest and buy ColorGATE is the latest part of this plan. To further progress its industrial printing business, Ricoh have established a “Global IP Technology Center” and a “Global IP Marketing Center”. Both are based in Europe which is becoming the centre of incubation for industrial printing markets. This allows access to cutting-edge technology and allows for increased responsiveness to market needs. The goal of both centres is to drive marketing, strategic planning and the development of business and products with Ricoh’s alliance partners worldwide.

Ricoh’s Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Commercial and Industrial Printing Business Group, Peter Williams says: ““By combining ColorGATE’s proprietary software technology with our own industrial printers, Ricoh will offer solutions that cover the entire printing workflow from pre-press to post-press. This acquisition will allow ColorGATE to grow its industrial printing business and global presence. Together, we will be more able to support our customers to accelerate their transition from analogue to digital based production.”

ColorGATE’s, Co-Founder Thomas Kirschner will continue to act as CEO says: “We are pleased to have been chosen by Ricoh to contribute to this strong future growth strategy whilst we continue to serve our established customer base, OEM partners and reseller channel.”