01732 759725 36 INTERVIEW very large projectors used in installations in museums, special displays, concerts et cetera. People may be reining in their spending overall, but going to events and to museums seems to be the one area that has been very resilient. That business is growing well again after a difficult time during the COVID crisis.” Ferguson adds that there are also developments on the commercial and industrial printing side that might present diversification and cross-sell opportunities for office-focused resellers. “What you find in the commercial largeformat and the video production market are specialist resellers – they’re really good because they are specialists. I would suggest that for them there isn’t much to be gained from overlap or cross-selling. However, for resellers that are focused on selling into the corporate office market there is a much bigger opportunity to cross-sell with products that are more plug and play. “If a product needs a high technical sell, if it has a significant software management requirement, if it involves pre- or post-processing, then it’s better to work with the specialists, but where it’s more plug and play you can definitely see that overlap. The SureColor T Series of four-colour large-format printers is a good example of where commercial printing is overlapping into the corporate market and where we are increasingly working with and selling through the business print channel.” Micro-production Ferguson adds that there are also opportunities in retail and small business environments from the development of space-efficient micro-production devices. “Retail always has a strong focus on the amount of revenue per square foot, so we’ve focused on making the footprint of devices as small and compact as possible. The output is not what you would get from a centralised production device, but you save in other ways: you’re printing on-demand; you’re printing very close to the customer who usually comes in to pick it up, saving you from having to spend money on logistics; and there are benefits in terms of the business model. For example, we see it as a way of maintaining things like the retail photo environment and supporting the crafting market. The office print market has a bit of an overlap into the commercial copy shop market, and they can definitely benefit from the micro production concept in terms of expanding their offering. I can also see it in specialised office print applications, such as the printing of passes and cards. “On top of that, micro production concepts are moving into areas that aren’t in production today and encouraging people to produce at a micro level. For example, we have a set of printers designed for T-shirt printing, or direct to garment printing; and photo printing, which takes us into event printing. Within the last nine months we have launched our first double-sided mini lab printer. This desktop-sized device now does duplex printing so it’s not just for printing holiday photos but can also be used for producing postcards, business cards and so on. These are not big innovations, but they do make a difference in terms of expanding potential uses of the product.” Focus on print For the rest of this year, Epson’s main focus on the print side will be the AM-C series and upgrading large-format printers that still have the previous generation of printhead to the latest PrecisionCore micro piezo printhead, bringing significant benefits in terms of drop accuracy and single pass printing. Longer term, Ferguson says there is much more to look forward to from Epson. “Epson is a technology company and our investment in new technology is not slowing down. We’re maintaining, if not growing, our revenues on a worldwide basis and continue to invest significantly in R&D and in core technologies that fit our ethos, which is about being compact, highly precise, energy-saving and adding value to what people are doing domestically, in the office or in their industrial endeavours. I think the rate of technology development will actually increase over the next three to five years and you will see a lot more innovation coming out of Epson.” www.epson.co.uk accepted but had minimal market reach, bringing it down to 40, 50 and 60ppm and within reach of more businesses. It’s still early days, but the initial reception has been very strong.” This represents a new opportunity for Epson and its reseller network. While established vendors might bemoan a 20-30% fall in print volumes in that core office market, Ferguson says this is less of a consideration for Epson. “We’re the disrupter in a very large market, and if that market is 20% lower than before, we’ll still be growing. Our concern is not the size of the total market, but making sure our proposition is well understood.” Sustainability message He adds that for channel partners, the AM-C series provides an alternative to laser-based devices supported by some very meaningful sales points. “Fundamentally, it’s a sustainability message and a cost of energy message when you compare the two technologies. The business model needs to be a little bit different as well. You have a significant amount of interventions on laser printers, you have less of those on inkjet printers, but the complexity of service as and when you do need it is different, so we need to train people up, which we are doing at the moment.” Epson’s business inkjet market is still growing strongly (in Europe, sales of Epson Office devices are targeted to almost double this year), and there are other bright spots. “The video projection side of the business is still growing. The investment in education continues, which is good for that side of the business. Another thing we’ve seen this summer is the bouncing back of what we call high brightness projection, the ...continued We’re the disrupter in a very large market, and if that market is 20% lower than before, we’ll still be growing. Our concern is not the size of the total market, but making sure our proposition is well understood
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