UK printer sales crash as services and green rally

Analyst Gartner revealed sales of printers, copiers and multifunctional products (MFPs) in the UK fell 26.4 per cent in volume in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 18 per cent year-on-year.

Tosh Prabhakar, senior printing market analyst at Gartner, said UK sales contracted far more than in the rest of EMEA, which overall shrank 8.4 per cent by volume.
Until at least 2010, organisations will focus on right-sizing the number of devices, rather than buying new printers.

“However, managed print solutions (MPS) are huge,” said Prabhakar. “We do not track them in terms of revenue ­ it is quite difficult ­ and many providers do not give that information, but MPSs are now some of the strongest offerings.

“Green is also big because it can reduce costs,” he added.

Nigel Allen, product head at Kyocera, said its green products are selling. “We are actually predicting unit growth.”

Tracey Fielden, marketing manager at Canon, said it had grown 12 per cent in 2008, fuelled by MPS.

See also:

Canon rejigs European exec team

Printing vendor announces new European and UK management after growing EMEA market share  18 Feb 2009

Gartner pushes managed print services

Printer, copier and MFP sales are in a tailspin, but Gartner says end users should be investing in deployment alternatives  17 Feb 2009

Printware outlines plans for prosperity in 2009

Bullish reseller reveals ambitious growth targets for the next three years in wake of Danwood buyout  29 Jan 2009

Future bright for business printing

Great opportunities are still out there for revenue and profit from business printing sales, says Bill Allan  27 Jan 2009

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