The OEM’s Filipino subsidiary saw an official opening for its factory near Manila.
A press release stated that the ceremony took place today at the factory, based at the First Philippine Industrial Park in Batangans, around 50 kilometres south of Manila, and was attended by a large group of government representatives, ambassadors and Brother management.
The facility, which will produce inkjet cartridges, comes after Brother Industries (Philippines) was set up in March 2012 “to meet increasing demands in the printing business”, and will soon be followed by a second facility that will manufacture inkjet printers and all-in-one devices, with the 400 new employees for the inkjet cartridge factory bolstered by more staff to take the OEM’s total number of employees in the Philippines to 3,500 by 2015.
The inaugurated factory opened today has a site area measuring approximately 134,000 square metres, with a gross floor space of around 52,000 square metres, which will be boosted to 110,000 square metres when the second factory is completed. Brother added that “although the manufacturing facility in China” that it previously constructed has “played a main role in operation of the […] inkjet business”, the new facilities will “also” be focused on inkjet manufacture.
Attendees at the inauguration included: President of the Philippines Benigno Simeon Aquino III; Secretary of Trade and Industry Gregory L. Domingo; Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan Toshinao Urabe; Representative Director and President of Brother Toshikazu Koike; and Executive Officer of Brother Yuji Miwa.
HP, Epson and Discover Imaging have made inroads into the Filipino market in the past year, with the industry seeing year-on-year growth.