First Minister Jack McConnell has officially opened OKI Printing Solutions' new Cumbernauld site and celebrated the company's 18 year investment in Scotland.

OKI Printing Solutions, which employs over 500 people at its Cumbernauld site, is a global business to business brand dedicated to creating professional printed communications products, applications and services.

On arrival, Jack McConnell was met by Niall Macdonald, Managing Director of OUK Cumbernauld. He was given a traditional welcome by the Japanese owned company, which included a sake-barrel breaking ceremony*. The Japanese tradition, so called 'kagami wari' signifies the beginning of a new business or a venture.

The new 200,000 sq ft building, which is based at 1, Oki Way, Wardpark North in Cumbernauld is just yards from the old site which has been sold to Halladale/Carlyle for retail purposes as part of Cumbernauld's regeneration programme.

During his tour he also met Shinozuka San, President and Chief Executive, Oki Electric Industry Co Ltd; Maeno San, President and CEO, OKI Printing Solutions; and Andrew Montgomery, Managing Director of the EMEA Region, as well as employees on the production floor. His visit included an overview of the impressive production levels at the site, which include:

• Mono Toner – 11 product types with 86 product variants and 15,000 assemblies a day
• Colour Toner – 10 product types with 36 product variants and 12,000 filled cartridges a day
• Ribbons – 10 product types with 22 product variants and 40,000 small ribbon and 2,500 large ribbon assemblies a day
• Product configuration – across all 5 core product categories and 3650 configurations per day

The First Minister was also provided with an overview of the other activities that Cumbernauld undertake such as:

• European Technical Support Centre – Customer services/support, documentation, field quality control, ERC, software development.
• European Supply Chain – planning, distribution control and inventory control
• European Data Centre

Niall MacDonald comments: "We were delighted to welcome the First Minister, Jack McConnell to the new site. These are exciting times for OKI Printing Solutions and the opening of this new building demonstrates our continued commitment to the local community, as well as the rest of Scotland and Europe."