Catridge World gains amid corporate cost cutting

As corporates gear up to pare costs, some companies stand to benefit. Cartridge World, the world's largest retailer of printer cartridge refilling service, has seen the share of corporate clients in its net business double to nearly 40-50 per cent from 20 per cent around nine months back. "Cost conscious corporates that are looking at bringing down overheads are now switching to re-filled printer and toner cartridges that offer a 40-70 per cent cost saving," said Neveen Rakhecha, chief operating officer(South Asia), Cartridge World.

The company now has 60 stores in 27 cities in the country and plans to take the number up to 100 by December this year. It has signed up with 81 franchises already. The company runs over 1,700 stores globally across 51 countries. US, one of its mature markets, with around 600 stores has also shown a year-on-year growth of 15 per cent last fiscal banking on the same phenomenon.

"The recession has actually been good for us. It made larger corporates ready to try our product", Rakhecha said adding that India is one of the fastest growing markets for Cartridge World. It,however, currently contributes a mere 4-5 per cent of the global turnover of the company that is pegged at around $450 million.

Rakehcha informed that the company was all set to get into agreements with hypermarkets, electronic superstores and other leading retail outlets to have shop-in-shop formats. "We are very close to inking a deal and will announce the first tie-up within a month, and a couple of others will follow", he added. It will also increase the existing product line that its stores offer to include allied products like stamps, office supplies besides printer repair services.

The printer cartridge industry in India is estimated around Rs 3,000 crore which is largely dominated by original equipment manufacturers. Around 20 per cent lies with the re-filling industry and of that a large section again belongs to the unorganised sector players. Organised re-filling is still quite nascent in India. Cartridge World currently enjoys a more than 50 per cent market share in the space.