Epson: Printer sales, still frozen on consumer segment

The domestic copier and printer market will still be challenging on the consumer segment this year because of consumers' low purchasing power, while estimates are still upbeat with regard to corporate sector acquisitions, maintains Ciprian Barangă, a sales and marketing manager with Epson for Romania and Bulgaria.

Epson sales on the Romanian market rose by 10-12% last year against 2009, and for 2011 the company targets revenue growth by at least 10%.

"Last year was definitely a difficult year for the printing market, since the decline that had started in the second half of 2008 deepened. Owing to the fact that our portfolio includes a wide range of products, we managed to balance sales at brand level," explains Barangă.

Gartner research firm in 2010 put the domestic copier and printer market at some 50.6m euros, down from 57.1m euros in 2009, when it plummeted by 50%. The hardest hit segment was that of printers, which dropped by 57.2%, to 85,314 units, while the entire office equipment market fell to 52m euros from 125.2m euros a year before, according to the same source.