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PRINT
How did Epson perform in 2015
and what were the key growth
areas?
Peter Silcock (PS):
Epson
performed very well, particularly
with business inkjets and scanners.
We’ve seen growth in business
inkjets of the order of 50-60%
year-on-year. The higher end of
the A3 MFP market is showing
considerable growth, but we have
located an area just below that,
in the £500-£1,000 range, where
products such as the WorkForce
Pro 8510 and 8590 are developing
a new market segment for us. We
also launched the WorkForce Pro
6590, a robust A4 multifunction
product that can be floorstanding
or on the desktop. The beauty of
these products is that people are
looking to put them onto an MPS-
type programme; SMEs in particular
are interested in products that they
can either buy or lease.
What is your primary focus for
2016?
PS:
We are investing 50
million euros in business inkjet
development; we see that as our
key growth area. From research
we’ve done, we see that people
are now prepared to change from
laser to inkjet, with
the environmental
benefits being a key
driver. This year, we
are really pushing the
inkjet message, the
environmental message,
and showing how easy
and flexible these
products are as printers
evolve from output
devices into document
hubs that enable people
to do all sorts of other
things, like print from
their mobile, scan to the cloud
– things that they may not have
realised they could do in the past.
What new innovations, products
and services are you introducing
in 2016?
PS:
People want to do more with
their products – as document
hubs, they expect their scanner
and their printer to do everything.
So we plan to integrate as many
services and solutions into our
devices as we can. I know this is
not particularly new, but we believe
we have a technology advantage
with our business inkjets – they can
save our customers considerable
amounts of money and have huge
environmental benefits as they use
less power and energy.
What do you see as the main
challenges facing SMEs and
corporates and what is Epson
doing to address them?
PS:
Print is often viewed purely as a
cost, but in fact it is absolutely vital.
In a survey we did, 77% of business
people across Europe said that print
is vital to them and essential to
their needs; 27% said that if they
weren’t able to print – if printing was
banned in the office – they would
be substantially less
productive. So, printing is
really essential, and
for more and more
SMEs this means
being able to print
from a laptop,
smartphone and
other devices as
well.
What do you see as
the main trends in
2016?
PS:
For me, it’s all
about ease of use.
People are looking
Talking print
Earlier this year
PrintIT
spoke to Peter Silcock, Business
Manager for Business Imaging at Epson UK, to find out
more about the company’s plans for 2016. Here we
present key extracts. The full interview can be seen on our
website at
for simple document management-
type solutions. There’s no point
having a complex printer or
multifunctional device at the centre
of your business. It’s got to be
simple and easy to operate. We’ve
learned a lot from our consumer
products on how to make things
easy, for example by having a
consistent user interface right
across the range. This extends to
solutions and being able to buy a
‘click’ for printing.
On that point, do you expect
demand for managed print
services to grow?
PS:
Absolutely. I think we have only
seen the tip of the iceberg. People
have the perception that MPS is
quite complex, but as they look to
outsource more and more of their
print I believe demand for MPS will
increase. And new technologies
will make it easier to deliver. For
example, our RIPS products have
such large ink capacities that they
make things a lot easier for resellers
as well as our end users – they don’t
have to keep replacing ink cartridges.
Is sustainability still a
consideration for customers?
PS:
We feel sustainability is
absolutely vital. As a Japanese
company we take the environment
incredibly seriously and
sustainability is right at the top
of our agenda. We could easily
match what other vendors are
doing with their products, using
several hundred watts of electricity
each time you print. But at Epson
we like to do things differently,
so we have introduced products
that instead of using 700 or 800
watts of electricity only use 25-40
watts, even when printing. We
don’t necessarily like to do things
the easy way; we like to do things
In a survey
we did, 77%
of business
people across
Europe said
that print is
vital to them
and essential
to their needs
