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INKJETS
14
Epson has announced that it is
investing
€
50 million in its European
operations over the next two years
to drive further growth in the region.
The investment is being made in the
company’s infrastructure, including new
offices in Berlin, Munich, Lisbon and Madrid;
in its workforce, with a 10% increase in
European headcount; and in marketing
activities, starting with a Go Green reseller
programme to promote sales of Epson
business inkjet products (see below).
For its future growth, Epson is focusing
on four key product areas – printing,
visual communications, quality of life and
manufacturing.
Rob Clark, newly appointed managing
director of Epson Europe, says that
its activities in these sectors will be
supported by continued innovation in
new technologies, including robotics and
wearables like the Epson Moverio Pro BT-
2000 smart headset.
He said: “Epson invests 6% of its
annual turnover in R&D. That’s $1.3 million
every single day. In Japan we hold more
patents than anyone else in printers, inkjet
technology and projectors. In fact, Epson
currently holds over 50,000 live patents,
and those patents are the lifeblood of our
future product development.”
However, Clark adds that in the short to
medium-term, Epson is relying on printers
for its planned growth.
“Our biggest and fastest opportunity
lies in office printing,” he said. “With
advantages in speed, total cost of ownership
and significant ecological benefits,
business inkjet is increasingly seen as the
replacement for laser in the office. It’s clear
that business inkjet technology is set to gain
a greater share of the overall office printing
market, which is estimated to represent a
€
38 billion opportunity in EMEA,” he said.
IDC states that inkjet adoption in the
business market is increasing by 13% per
annum and that by 2019, inkjet printers
will account for 34% of the total business
market.
Testing conducted by Buyers Laboratory
LLC (BLI) highlights the advantages of
business inkjets. BLI found that Epson
WorkForce Pro devices required 100
fewer minutes of user intervention than
competing laser products; offered three
and a half times faster first page out times;
delivered energy savings of up to 82%;
generated 95%, or 77 kilograms, less
waste when printing up to 80,000 pages;
and were 18% quieter.
Business inkjets underpin Epson growth plans as it makes big investment in Europe
Be kind to the environment and make your own paper
Epson innovating
to drive growth
Clark points out that Epson is a
disruptive force in the consumer market,
too, where its EcoTank product range
launched last September has turned the
business printer model on its head.
He said: “Instead of selling a printer
at
€
59 and then selling ink cartridges, we
have done away with cartridges completely.
We now supply enough ink within an
EcoTank printer for around two years. And,
after two years, the additional ink costs
less than
€
10 for another two years. On
average, this provides our customers with
a 70% saving on print costs. This range
has already proved extremely successful
and there are now over 10 million of these
printers installed globally.”
To help resellers profit from its business
inkjet devices, Epson has launched a new
'Go Green' programme. Participating
resellers will receive dedicated support
in the form of a marketing toolkit,
promotional copy and collateral, and
exclusive reseller and end user incentives.
Qualifying products include the Workforce
Pro WF-5620DWF and WF-8510DWF.
For more information on Go Green,
please visit
viewcon/corporatesite/cms/index/11883/.
Business inkjet
technology is
set to gain a
greater share
of the overall
office printing
market
Epson has become the latest printer
company to develop a solution designed to
reduce the environmental impact of printing.
While companies like Xerox and Toshiba have
focused on reducing paper consumption through
the development of eraseable toner and re-usable
paper, Epson is going down the route of on-site
recycling and remanufacturing.
It has developed what it describes as the world’s
first office recycling and paper-making system
capable of producing new paper from securely
shredded waste paper, without the use of water.
The PaperLab was exhibited at Eco-Products
2015 in Tokyo on December 10-12, and is
planned to go into commercial production next
year, initially for the Japanese market.
PaperLab performs three essential functions:
1
On-site recycling.
Instead of having to
transport waste to a central recycling facility,
PaperLab enables paper recycling to be carried
out in the office;
2
Secure shredding.
PaperLab breaks
documents down into paper fibres, removing
the need for the shredding or off-site disposal of
confidential documents; and
3
Paper-making.
PaperLab is able to produce
paper of various types, sizes and thickness, from
A4 and A3 printer paper to business cards. Paper
can
even be
coloured
and scented. The system can produce about
14 A4 sheets per minute or 6,720 sheets in an
eight-hour day.
PaperLab uses Epson’s Dry Fiber Technology,
which enables paper to be recycled and
remanufactured without water. Because, the
system doesn’t need plumbed-in water, it can be
placed wherever is most convenient.
Dry Fiber Technology performs three
functions: fiberising, which turns waste paper
into long, thin cotton-like fibres; binding, the
addition of binders to strengthen, whiten, colour
or perfume the fibre; and forming to produce
sheets of paper and card with full control over
the density, thickness and size of paper.
The compact Epson PaperLab measures
2.6 x 1.2 x 1.8 metres.
Rob Clark,
managing director,
Epson Europe
Epson :
PaperLab
