Epson shifts focus to corporate market

Epson Thailand, the local unit of the global printing and projection technology pioneer, is shifting its focus to the corporate market and a service-based printing model to thrive in digitisation, offsetting the sluggish consumer market during the pandemic.

“For fiscal 2020, which ends this March, Epson’s local revenue is estimated to contract 15% because of the school closure affecting the projector and inkjet printer market,” said Yunyong Muneemongkoltorn, managing director of Epson Thailand.

According to market research firm GfK, local inkjet printer sales fell 9% year-on-year in 2020 and sales of projectors contracted 22%.

Demand for receipt printers has slowed because of the business shutdown, particularly restaurants. Dot matrix printers for education and government sectors are seeing slow replacement sales, though spare parts sales are increasing, he said.

Label printer sales are rising in line with the growing healthcare and medicine segment.

The growth is also seen in T-series multipurpose enterprise printers, inkjet photocopiers and printers for minilab business.

“We have seen the massive emergence of one-person businesses and freelancers, including those providing photo-printing services. Epson sales were affected far less than expected,” said Mr Yunyong.

He said for fiscal 2021, Epson aims to bounce back with growth of 10%, driven by corporate users, who are expected to account for 33% of the company’s revenue in 2021, versus 30% in 2020.

Consumer revenue is expected to decline from 70% to 65%.

For industry, high-speed inkjet printers, lumen laser projectors and large format printers have the potential for growth among businesses and the industrial sector, Mr Yunyong said.

Next month, Epson will gear up for a service-based business model, called Epson EasyCare 360 Mao Mao, with monthly fixed payment packages, running from 790 baht to 2,490 baht a month, which covers eight printer models. The project is expected to create 60 million baht in revenue.