The company’s president, Toshikazu Koike, said that its previously successful “network-related products” such as printers or MFPs are becoming saturated, as people stop using printers because of smartphones or tablets.
He told The Worldfolio that “we [Brother] need more businesses in our portfolio”, transitioning from the business’ current 60 percent intake from its printing and faxing business to offering printing technologies on cans, labels fabrics and industrial parts.
New mergers and acquisitions are also options, Koike said, following the purchase of UK printing consumables supplier Domino in July of this year. The director said he made the purchase “to make the industrial area our second major product category, after the printing business”.
He also predicts paper magazines and bookstores will become “diigtalised”, leading to less demand for printing. Speaking about what makes the Brother brand unique, Koike said that it was the first company to create MFPs suitable for small and home office users in 1995, and that its share of compact MFPs is currently as high as 30 to 40 percent.
He also claimed that Brother has managed to gain 30 to 40 percent of the US laser printer market, while 80 percent of its intake now comes from outside Japan. The company leader further commented that when he started studying the US printer market, almost 80 to 90 percent of Americans didn’t know Brother was Japanese, as it was such a common name in the US market.
American clients “do not care so much about brand names or they are not so exclusive to the brand itself. That is why we were given the opportunity to sell fax products or printer products although nobody knew about us as a printer and fax manufacturer”.
Koike said that unique features on products also win over American customers, while in Russia and the Middle East, Japanese products are popular, so Brother markets strongly its country of origin there.