Japanese printer maker Seiko Epson Corp.’s revenue from its Indian subsidiary, Epson India, may grow 15% this financial year to ₹1,900 crore on the back of increasing demand for its InkTank printers and projectors in the country, Minoru Usui, president of the parent company said in an e-mail interview.
“Our intention is to make Inkjet InkTank Printers the de facto technology replacing ink cartridge and laser technology in India. We will continue to offer consumers the lowest cost per page printing [7 paise],” Mr. Usui said.
Epson overtook HP in ink tank printers market in terms of unit share for the first time in the first quarter of last year after posting a 26.5% growth year-on-year, according to IDC.
Shift in preference
The Indian printer market witnessed a significant technology shift last year, with customers showing an “ever-increasing inclination” towards ink tank printers over entry-level laser printers. The main reason behind this shift is the low cost of printing and high page yield ink bottles available in the market, according to IDC.
“Projectors will be the second driver of growth for us in India. High brightness projectors targeted at corporates, educational institutions, and home will drive this growth,” Mr. Usui said. “We also expect new segments like robotics and textile printing to be key growth drivers for us in India.”
3LCD projectors
“Today classrooms in India are rapidly going digital. Our 3LCD projectors…. play a huge role in making the classroom experience a truly immersive and collaborative one. With increasing affluence, we also believe there is a huge untapped market for projector usage at home in India.
“And with a strong culture of movie watching [and now streaming video and gaming], home theatre projectors represent a great opportunity for us and will hence be a market we aim to develop,” he said. Digital textile printing would be another opportunity, he said. “Today, 90% of the printing in this segment is analog and only 10% or less is digital. The analog printing process involves a lot of chemicals, water, large facilities, high power consumption, huge investment and is very time-consuming. With our digital printers, we hope to completely change the way this industry operates.”
The spread of tablets and smartphones will not make printing redundant, Mr. Usui said.
“People still like using paper as a communications tool because it has many advantages: it is portable, flexible, easy to understand, and it doesn’t require a battery. The key for printing companies is to understand the way people are using paper and to adapt accordingly.”
Although overall print volumes may be declining there were new opportunities opening up in industrial and commercial printing, he said.
Markets such as India, China, and Latin America are expanding rapidly and offer enormous opportunities and Epson is eyeing these markets to grow at about 20% every year, Mr. Usui said. “We are looking at opportunities to augment the traditional strengths of our core businesses, especially in areas like software.”
“Globally for FY2018 (ending March 2019), we are targeting a turnover of $10,050 million.
