Frank de Afonseca heads up Ricoh’s production print business in South Africa

Ricoh SA has appointed Frank de Afonseca to head up its Production Printing Business Group.

De Afonseca is a 20-plus year veteran of the print industry who heads up a portion of Ricoh’s business achieving a new level of maturity.

“Visitors at drupa 2016 are taking Ricoh’s production offering seriously,” says De Afonseca. “Demonstrations of the VC60000 and examples of its active work in the field with live customers for the past two years caused a lot of chin-wagging among the pundits who saw it’s a device operating at the highest levels in the industry.”

He adds: “Our partnerships with some of the top names in commercial and graphic arts print, the likes of Heidelberg and EFI, lend credibility to our newfound position among the cream of the production crop.”

Jacques van Wyk, COO of Ricoh SA, says: “Frank is a pillar of the industry and we have absolute confidence in his knowledge and experience as well as his undisputed leadership qualities. He is a top-notch businessman who understands it is still a people game. We have watched him nurture the talent beneath him at Ricoh South Africa and invest the time and energy that a customer-centric focus demands. At his right hand side is Vaughan Patterson who has incredible knowledge of the industry and is widely liked and respected. To his left is Stanley Gorman, a fount of knowledge with specific expertise in the software side of the production world.”

“I’m focused on growing Ricoh’s market share,” says De Afonseca, “as my competitors are focused on growing theirs. But we have all the right pieces in place to achieve it. We have great products, solid solutions, powerful partnerships so crucial in the current rapidly changing world of digital production print, and we have a team of people with literally hundreds of years of combined experience, many of them individually with more than 20 years. The latest drupa also revealed to me how potent our focus on customers’ business is instead of products and solutions like many competitors. We believe that will be the defining differentiator as we tackle these rapidly innovative times alongside our customers, building rewarding partnerships that grow their businesses to grow ours.”