About
Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc. (President: Yoshikatsu Ota) newly established a wholly-owned office equipment sales subsidiary in the People's Republic of China as outlined below.
Because of the legal restrictions imposed by the Chinese government, we have been selling our products in mainland China through two channels, namely, Konica Minolta Business Solutions (WUHAN) Co., Ltd.,*1 a joint venture with a Chinese company, and Konica Minolta International Trading (SHANGHAI) Co., Ltd., *2 an import and sales company headquartered in the bonded zone in Shanghai City.
Following the agreement reached upon China's accession to WTO, however, approximately two years ago an accelerated process to ease the restrictions on commercial distribution in China was put into place, and now foreign companies are allowed to operate wholly-owned sales subsidiaries locally. Seizing this opportunity, we established a wholly-owned sales subsidiary in this rapidly growing market, integrating the sales operations of the two companies mentioned above, with a view to exerting centralized control over both our direct sales and distributors' resales channels while responding to market needs more quickly and flexibly.
Konica Minolta will remain committed to developing innovative, quality products in the fields of color MFPs*, high-speed MFPs* (POD), and color laser printers. These products are the focus of Konica Minolta Group's office equipment business, currently earmarked as the group's most important business. Konica Minolta will continue efforts to create a strong sales network throughout China, so that we will be able to establish our presence as a leader in all of these focused fields.
*MFP (multi function peripheral): A multi-functional computer peripheral, which can be used not only as a copier, but also as a fax machine, printer, and so on.