One of Xerox’s multi-brand toner cartridges
The OEM spoke about toner cartridges it’s made for use in HP and Canon machines.
Deccan Chronicle interviewed Xerox India’s Balaji Rajagopalan, Executive Director for Technology, Channels and International Distributor Operations, about the OEM’s partnership with Flipkart to produce multi-branded toner cartridges for use in HP and Canon machines, the launch of which The Recycler reported on earlier this year.
The cartridges, branded as Xerox products, are “specifically designed and catered for HP and Canon printers”, with Xerox stating that they are “designed to take on the toner refilling market and make replacing laser toner cartridges as cheap as refilled ones”. Rajagopalan responded to the site’s question about support from other manufacturers by noting that “what typically happens in the marketplace is we start competing with others, so it is not a question of promoting.
“Obviously, our competition will have their own cartridges and they will promote use of the same for their devices. What we are offering now is Xerox branded cartridges that are manufactured to the exacting quality and standards that Xerox is known for. It is completely legal and it is not just any third party who is marketing these, these carry the Xerox brand and these have been made for use in HP and Canon printers.
“This brings in the confidence of quality and what really matters in the cartridges is the quality, reliability and yield and we make sure that the yield is as good and matches the quality produced as OEM’s cartridges”. Adding that the other OEMs do not mind these products being produced by Xerox, he said in response to whether these other OEMs are “recommending” the cartridges that “obviously, we will continue to compete. I will push my cartridges and HP will push theirs”.
In terms of warranty and damage, Rajagopalan commented that “in most cases the use of an alternate consumable brand does not impact the warranty of the product”, and that “given the quality of the product and rigorous testing it has been subjected to”, users will “have a smooth experience”.
Asked about refilling, he commented that “we do not promote refilling, and we have an awareness and education programme for our customers, [talking] to them about using original cartridges and avoid[ing] refilling”. Xerox also “do[es] not have any such [recycling or remanufacturing] programme in India, though “this is something we would like to get into, but nothing is decided as of now”.
Finally, Rajagopalan noted that Xerox is “not going there” in regards to producing Epson-compatible cartridges, though the programme “will be extended further in the coming months” across India.