Epson to enter laser printer market

Epson, the global peripherals major, will introduce its range of laser printers in the Indian market in the next fiscal. According to the company, the products will be introduced as part of their business products division and will include only colour laser printers.

"We are not in the price game, we have never played that role. So we do not want to compete in the mono laser printers segment since we believe that it is mostly determined by price nowadays," said Sambamoorthy, GM-business products, Epson India.

He refused to divulge details on the investment plans and the revenues expected from the introduction saying the plan was still being outlined.

With that move, Epson will be taking on long time rival in the inkjet category, HP, head-on. According to IDC, HP holds 74 per cent of the laser market in India, with Samsung second at 18 per cent. In the first half of this fiscal IDC estimates that the colour laser segment itself grew by a whopping 150 per cent.

Another area that Epson believes holds promise in the coming fiscal is dot matrix printers (DMPs). "I think there is a lot more potential for the DMPs in the market. Conservative estimates plug them as stagnating, but I would say there is potential for a 6 per cent growth for the next two years. BFSI and government will be the driving factors of that growth," says Moorthy.

According to IDC, DMP volumes grew 18 per cent in the first half of this fiscal, as they were the inevitable choice for billing and other niche applications in user segments like BFSI, government and even SMB.

Moorthy also expects the other two divisions within the realm of business products in Epson, projectors and system devices, to grow in the coming fiscal.

According to him, system devices, made up of retail hardware elements and sales to OEMs, grew 80 per cent in sheer revenue terms during the last fiscal and contributed Rs 21 crore.

Most of the growth came from the exploding retail market in the country and an increasing demand for better billing and point of sales systems. Projectors are still held back by the high import duties on the product and a significant grey market at 30 per cent, but Moorthy remains confident of increasing sales.

Business products contributed Rs 95 crore to Epson India's revenues, which according to Dataquest was Rs 190 crore, in fiscal '04. This fiscal, Moorthy estimates his group's contribution to equal Rs 130 crore, with DMPs alone contributing nearly Rs 100 crore.

This revenue distribution will change with the introduction of lasers within the category but when asked about that Moorthy says, "You will have to wait till April for that."