Japanese OEM’s objective to “more than double” digital commercial printer sales in three years.
Reuters reports on Konica Minolta’s plans to broaden its product range and expand its presence in emerging markets over the next three years, aiming to double sales of its digital commercial printers to $2 billion (€1.6 billion).
The company has identified digital commercial printer segment as having “strong growth potential”, with the printers being used to print large volumes of documents such as product manuals and direct mail quickly and efficiently.
It is reported that revenues from Konica Minolta’s digital commercial printer segment totalled ¥83 billion ($1 billion/€863 million) in the year ending in March – nine percent of its total sales. The company therefore hopes to launch new machines in emerging markets such as China, India and South America, through both in-house development and procurement from Dutch printer manufacturer Oce NV OCEN.AS, who they have been jointly developing and supplying products with since last year.
Atsushi Kodama, Executive Officer at Konica Minolta commented: “With regular office products reaching maturity and growth in the segment slowing, we need a new pillar of growth, and [digital commercial printing] is our new pillar.”
Kodama reportedly said that “in four to five years” the company aims to boost digital commercial printer sales in emerging markets to ¥10 billion ($128 million/€103 million) per unit from the current “negligible levels”.
Kodama added: “There are overwhelming numbers of people in China and India, and Indonesia alone has some 200 million people. If a nation is populous and literacy rates are high, printing demand is bound to grow.”