Epson Eyes 12% Share of the Indian Printer Market with InkTank Printers

There’s a war going on in India—to capture the lucrative laser printing market and convert it into ink.

“In three years, it plans to capture 25 per cent of the laser printer market,” said Mr Samba Moorthy (pictured), President and CEO, Epson India.

“The proportion of laser printers in India is bigger than the global average. That means there is a huge opportunity for us to (ensure) more share from the laser printers to (shift to) inkjet printers,” Koichi Kubota, Chief Operating Officer, Printing Solutions Operations Division Seiko Epson Corporation, told BusinessLine.

He added, “Epson India has been replacing laser printers step by step. But still, nearly half of the total market in India is still laser. In the US and Japan, 80-90 per cent of the (printer) market is inkjet. It’s completely different.” Epson clocked a market share of 46.44 per cent in the inkjet printer market in FY19, and it plans to increase this to 50 per cent this year through the new launches. Epson India has had a CAGR of over 15 per cent in the last three years and intends to increase it to around 20 per cent in the next three years.

It clocked a revenue of 1,896 crore last year and is targeting 2,050-2,070 crore this year.

The mono laser printers in the 1-20 PPM category, which constitute almost 70 per cent of the laser printing industry, has reduced in the number of units sold to 10,15,823 units in FY18 from 12,68,972 in FY13, according to data shared by Epson. Total inkjet printer market size has increased to 18,80,651 units from 12,38,926 during this period.

Sambamoorthy said users have shifted from laser printers to inkjet printers, which is reflected in the 8 per cent market share Epson India has captured from the laser printer market.

Earlier, the company was addressing this shift through its colour printers. The focus has now changed to its Monochrome EcoTank printers to tap into the office printing market.

Epson announced the launch of seven new Monochrome EcoTank printers on Thursday, targeting the office printing market.