Remanufacturing the Customer’s Cartridges Instore

As a distributor, I deal with three remanufacturing groups:

1. factories like Ninestar, Utec and Clover that supply ready for sale remanufactured cartridges;
2. factories that supply the components that remanufacturers and refillers need; and
3. the retail stores themselves that buy a combination of finished cartridges but also remanufacture or refill in-store.

All three groups have seen a relative decline in volumes due
to a combination of cheaper new-build aftermarket products and increased technical hurdles. The move away from retail in-store remanufacturing of both inkjet and laser cartridges has been accelerated by the lack of current model chip resetters and more expensive replacement chips.

This has meant the ratio of new-build to remanufactured products has increased over time. At some point, the stores decide to quit in-store refilling altogether. Typically, they stop toner refilling first, followed by inkjet. As to the availability of chip resetters, I have had discussions with a number of the ink, toner and parts suppliers, suggesting that they fund the development of resetters. If stores can’t reset chips, less will refill and sales in their supplies will be impacted directly.

In 2012 we purchased a supplies business in Australia. At the time, the business had dropped around 80 percent in turnover over the previous 3-year period. At the same time, 80 percent of sales were bulk ink. I worked with German-based OCP Inks and we were able to turn that around and increase ink sales. However, over the next four years, the ratio of bulk ink to total business dropped away. Sales in bulk ink had risen, but the importance in the total business had dropped as more and more stores had stopped refilling.