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FULL STORY
Thunderbolt Solutions and Agfa Graphics have announced that they have reached an agreement for the distribution, service and support of the Agfa Graphics range of products in Southern Africa.
Pictured from left to right: Gerry Baker and Peter van der Walt of Thunderbolt Solutions with Dave Reynolds of Agfa Graphics South Africa seen finalising the agreement between the two companies.
The agreement, which will take effect from 1 October 2014, will include the full range of products from Agfa including plates and pressroom chemistry, computer-to-plate solutions with front-end systems and, the wide-format industrial inkjet printer range.
‘Agfa Graphics has a strong user base in Southern Africa,’ said Dave Reynolds, general manager South Africa for Agfa Graphics. ‘Joining forces with Thunderbolt means that our customers will enjoy the best technical and after sales support in the industry. We have opted for a partner that has a wide range of complementary products. We recognise Thunderbolt’s strong presence in our market, as well as its technical abilities and top-class customer service levels.’
Thunderbolt Solutions entered the prepress sector with a range of solutions aimed at the commercial and packaging printing sectors five years ago. The agreement with Thunderbolt will strengthen Agfa Graphics’ sales and service infrastructure in the South African Newspaper, Commercial and Wide Format Inkjet market.
Thunderbolt has been active in the graphic arts market for 15 years as a major supplier of equipment and consumables. Peter van der Walt, chairman of Thunderbolt Solutions said, ‘Thunderbolt Solutions is a leading supplier of presses and post-press equipment to the South African market. We pride ourselves on the fact that we have been selected by international leading companies to represent their product ranges in this market. Adding Agfa Graphics, as a world leading prepress supplier, to our product portfolio will enable us to offer our clients a fully integrated solution. It also gives us access to the wide-format inkjet market with, what is arguably, the leading range of equipment.’
Thunderbolt Solutions has offices in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town ensuring that it is conveniently situated within easy reach of all its customers around the country. Its staff complement of almost 50 people around the country has an unrivalled depth of experience in the sectors it is active in. It also has a dedicated and experienced technical team capable of assisting customers with all manner of servicing, maintenance and repairs on all the equipment in its product range. Thunderbolt sales and technical staff will receive all necessary training to ensure that they are completely conversant with the Agfa range of products as well.
Reynolds added, ‘After a five-year relationship with our previous partner, we believe that we need to be closer to our customers in order to better understand their needs, and we can only do this by being more actively involved with the end users of our products and we see this close relationship with Thunderbolt as offering the ideal combination of access to Agfa’s dynamic product portfolio. At the same time our new partnership will ensure the best after sales support to our valued client base.’
Van der Walt concluded, ‘We look forward to working closely with the Agfa team to bring their range of systems and solutions to the market. Many of our existing customers are also Agfa customers and we will do everything we can to ensure that we provide them with a seamless transition to the Thunderbolt family.’
© Graphic Repro On-line, 15 - 16 June 2014.
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