Mark Lloyd presenting Sharon Yavus, operations director at Ethos Communications, with the Blue Ribbon award at the Konica Minolta event.

Konica Minolta has paid tribute to its annual dealer partner conference after it highlighted potential growth areas for the year ahead.

Held at Mercedes Benz World in Webridge, Surrey, the event was given the theme ‘Driving Performance’.

It allowed the firm to engage dealer partners in Konica Minolta product development plans, highlight marketing changes and recognise the most successful partners at an award ceremony.

New systems for business equipment and production print market sectors were also previewed ahead of commercial launch, with details additionally released about plans to support dealerships’ transition from convectional unit sales to managed print services.

“Our market is undergoing a change from simple machine sales to a more sophisticated service provision model. It is important that we educate, engage and support our dealer partners so that they can make this transition successfully with us,” explains director of indirect channels, Mark Lloyd.

He adds: “The plans we unveiled at the ‘Driving Performance’ partner event are a clear indication that Konica Minolta has a channel strategy in place to manage this process positively.”

As well as discussing products and solutions with Konica Minolta staff, visitors also took the opportunity to look around the Mercedes Benz exhibition.

Guests were treated to exhilarating passenger ride in high-performance Mercedes AMG cars with expert drivers.

The day concluded with the awards ceremony, with the top honour of the Blue Ribbon award for exceptional growth performance going to Ethos Communication—allowing Konica Minolta to show its appreciation, as well as reveal future growth plans.