Welcome to 2011 and what looks to be another dynamic year for the industry. As we shake off the impact of the recession there is growth in the market with a strong mergers and acquisitions programme as well as a growth in the number of new people and companies entering the industry. So what are the challenges for 2011 and beyond?
The biggest challenge is meeting the demand for colour in the office and growing the market share so that it is comparable to monochrome laser. Inkjet in the office is growing rapidly and the key is building in a value ad in the form of extra printing capacity, speciality inks and enhanced service. Remanufactured colour laser currently has a five percent market share, yet the potential is to grow this sector to twenty plus percent over the next few years. How do you do it? The first step is to learn from the experiences of other industries. Copies, motor vehicles have all undergone a quantum change in technology in recent years and in just about every case resulted in going back to basics and unlearning their existing working practices and developing new ones to suit the technology they were working with. Colour is a big segment of the market and the rewards are there, you just need to embrace the technology.
MPS is projected to be the big growth area for the OEM’s. Yet every OEM presentation I have seen involves the customer having to buy new equipment to save costs. But this is a lot of male bovine waste because with good aftermarket software and supplies the average MPS client can save substantially more. How do we communicate this message to audience – That’s to 2011 challenge!
For many reasons we have not courted advertising from the OEM’s, though I have good working relations with many of them. One even asked to exhibit at REMAX once, but then ran scared… So this month we welcome what I believe is our first OEM advert from the new kid on the block Sienne Technology who have their origins in remanufacturing and have developed a small, but versatile rage of printers to enter the market that will grow in the domestic Chinese market and take market share from the other members of the OEM club.
Most of the readers of this magazine are decision makers and are often one or two steps away from the direct production of cartridges. So as soon as you have finished reading this issue, get yourself a cup of coffee, close the office door and put your phones on silent and watch the Static Control 2600 webinar. In about one hour and forty six minutes you will be amazed at what you know and perhaps what some of your monochrome gate guardians don’t know. If you are in production then you should watch the webinar now, while the boss reads the magazine just so that you are one step ahead.
Goat Labs is the new name for Oasis in Europe, well done to everyone for managing the transition and make sure you check them out atREMAX.
The Recycler team is expanding and it is a pleasure to welcome Ffion, Michelle and James to the team as we respond to the growth in our business. 2010 was a good year for us with circulation up twenty five percent and we hit our 2010 target of five thousand copies a month with this issue. A big thank you to you all for supporting us and a big thank you to the team for working so hard to deliver the magazine every month.
If you would like to be a Guest Editor of one of our issues then please visit therecycler.com/guesteditor.aspx for all the details.