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CONSUMABLES
A new campaign aimed at end users
and the trade encourages the use
of genuine KYOCERA consumables
and highlights the consequences
of choosing nominally cheaper
alternatives, from illegal clones
to legitimate compatibles and
remanufactured cartridges.
PITR
caught up with Jonathan Robbins,
Consumables & Spares Manager at
KYOCERA Document Solutions, to
find out more.
PITR:
What is the purpose of your
campaign?
Robbins
:
We are trying to send a message
out against compatibles in the market.
Compatibles are causing damage to our
products and to our company name. We
want to highlight the reliability of genuine
consumables and the problems that can
arise from using compatibles.
PITR:
What are some of those
problems?
Robbins
:
TUV Rheinland in Germany
tested a range of our products with both
genuine and compatible toners. The
machines fitted with compatibles had a
number of problems: some actually caused
damage – one third party toner damaged
four developer units in two printers; three
out of four compatible toners caused
machine downtime, compared to none of
the genuine cartridges; third party supplies
produced up to 73% more waste toner;
and there were up to nine times more non-
usable prints when using compatibles.
PITR:
Why are you launching the
campaign now?
Robbins
:
More people are using compatible
toner in our devices and we have noticed
that the failure rate of machines under
warranty for those that do is going up.
People are experiencing poor quality prints,
they are getting excessive jams, they are
getting lots of waste paper and waste toner
and this is down to the toner they put in the
machine. Our campaign is to ensure that
people who use our machines get the best
out of them every time.
PITR:
Is the use of compatibles a
problem in the channel?
Robbins
:
Some dealers who are supplying
compatible toners to their MIF are seeing
an increase in their spares spend due to
an increase in the failure rate. I've spent
time with a couple of dealers who were
buying compatibles but have now gone
back to using genuine supplies because
the compatibles they were using caused
too many failures and used too much
toner, which meant they had to provide
replacements more often than they would
have liked.
PITR:
Why are more people using
compatible toner in your devices?
Robbins
:
Because there are now a lot
more compatible supplies for our products
than there used to be. Before, compatible
companies weren't that interested in us,
but as we have increased our market share,
more and more manufacturers have come
to the market with versions of our toner.
And the route to market is much faster. Five
years ago, it would be 18 months before
the compatible manufacturer brought out a
toner for a new product. Now, it takes just
six months.
PITR:
What proportion of consumables
used in your machines are now third
party?
Robbins
:
Context have analysed the
distribution channel and what is being sold
out to the end user and reseller markets,
and they have calculated that 10% of
consumables used in KYOCERA devices are
compatibles. For some other manufacturers
it would be about 25-30%. They have also
looked at the counterfeit side, and that is
very small – less than one percentage point.
PITR:
Your technology is based on
long-lasting components and the
only replaceable element is the toner,
so it must be easy for a company to
KYOCERA Document Solutions has become the latest printer company to
warn of the dangers of using compatible and clone printer consumables.
Buyer beware
produce a toner cartridge for one of
your devices.
Robbins
:
We manufacture our own toner
and our own machines and there are things
within the toner that protect the machine
and make it last. Unlike devices that use all-
in-one cartridges, KYOCERA machines have
toner cartridges and separate drums and
developers designed to last for 100,000 to
600,000 pages (depending on the model).
If you put in toner that hasn't been made
for that machine it can cause damage to
the drum and developer so that they don't
last as long as they should, and you can't
guarantee what the quality will be like over
a long period of time.
PITR:
Presumably the potential
problems are even worse with
counterfeit supplies.
Robbins
:
Yes. Compatibles are
made legitimately and they have the
manufacturer's name on the packaging.
However, a counterfeit toner is made to
look genuine. The box will look exactly the
same as genuine consumables; it will have
the KYOCERA name on it and KYOCERA
toner codes. People buy counterfeit toner
because they see an advert for genuine
consumables at a very low cost, but
anything could be inside the toner. Some
we've analysed have contained charcoal
and iron filings. Just think of the damage
that would do to your machine.
PITR:
What are you doing to counter
the counterfeiters?
Robbins
:
We have been training customs
and excise officers at ports and airports to
spot KYOCERA supplies that come into the
UK through unexpected channels. All toner
goes from Japan to Amsterdam and then
into the UK through one port. If it enters
by any other port, customs officers will
alert our legal team. We have made several
seizures in this way and have also followed
the trail back to a plant in China and had it
closed down.
PITR:
Do you have holograms and
QR codes to validate your supplies as
genuine?
Robbins
:
We already have holograms
on our toner containers to ensure they
are genuine, and we are moving towards
serialisation of our consumables so that we
can reward people for buying genuine. This
means that when a customer enters the
serial number of a genuine toner on a web
portal, we could offer a voucher or we could
implement a reward scheme where you get
one free toner for every x number you buy.
To find out more about KYOCERA
Document Solutions' campaign and the TUV
Rheinland toner test results, please visit
I've spent time
with a couple
of dealers who
were buying
compatibles
but have now
gone back to
using genuine
supplies
Jonathan Robbins,
Consumables &
Spares Manager,
Kyocera Document
Solutions
