United Nations report promotes remanufacturing

May 17, 2013

Report published by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) highlights growing significance of remanufacturing industry.

The report, titled ‘Green Economy and Trade: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities’, was published on 8 May and features a section on remanufacturing in which the environmental benefits of remanufacturing are highlighted, along with the industry’s “increasing significance” in certain fields and global regions, such as China and Africa.

The aim of the report was to identify international trade opportunities that arise from developing a green economy, identify policies enabling industries to pursue these opportunities, and help to develop the capacity necessary to establish a green economy through sustainable trade; with remanufacturing being promoted as an opportunity for creating green trade opportunities.

Noting that remanufactured products can save consumers “typically in the order of 30 to 40 percent less than comparable new products”, the report states that remanufacturing “offers potential for new national business ventures within developing countries” as well as new export opportunities. It adds that in certain fields, such as motor vehicle components, electrical data and communications equipment and laser toner cartridges, remanufacturing is growing in significance, particularly in China which is “making remanufacturing a key part of their industrial strategy”.

The environmental benefits of remanufacturing are also mentioned in the report, which states that “remanufacturing operations worldwide are already saving approximately 10.7 million barrels of oil each year” as well as saving “significant volumes of water and raw materials”. It therefore concludes that remanufacturing is a good way for governments to “clean up municipal waste, save energy in domestic industry and create jobs”.

A further benefit of remanufacturing detailed in the report is that remanufactured goods are able to “meet the criteria for new goods without additional quality and safety requirements that sometimes apply to refurbished goods”, with some countries agreeing that import restrictions should not be applied to remanufactured products and that such products should be treated in the same way as new goods.

While the report shows remanufacturing in a positive light, it recognises that a “major obstacle” for the industry is the need for “active cooperation from original equipment manufacturers”, noting that as there is no end-of-life tax on product disposal, incentives are created for OEMs to “build obsolescence and replacement into their business model in order to save costs from value chain modernisation”.

It adds that “remanufacturing contributes towards fostering incentives for value chain modernisation by creating new business models that focus on services instead of products” and that the incentive effect of remanufacturing can be enhanced by end-of-life waste disposal taxes of manufacturers “making component re-use and recycling attractive tools for cost saving”.

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Tags : Environment Remanufacturing

Worldwide hardcopy sales see 9.7 percent decline

May 16, 2013

IDC’s latest global report notes that the year-on-year decline in both units and shipments value is the third consecutive quarter of decline.

The statistics, from the analyst’s Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker, states that the global market decreased by 9.7 percent in the first quarter of 2013 in comparison to the year before, with 25.8 million units shipped. The shipment value also declined by 5.7 percent to a  value of $14.3 billion (€11.1 billion).

Colour laser MFP markets saw the largest growth of 3.2 percent in 1Q13, followed by monochrome laser MFPs with a growth of 0.9 percent. Monochrome laser devices also ranked second in terms of units shipped with 7.8 million, and first in shipment value with $5.5 billion (€4.2 billion), giving them a 30 percent share of the global market in unit shipments and 39 percent share in terms of value.

Colour laser meanwhile represents 42 percent of the shipment value market, whilst conversely holding only a seven percent share of shipments in 1Q13. Colour inkjet MFPs however continue to hold a majority of the market with a 50 percent share in the first quarter. 15 million inkjet units were shipped worldwide, with 13 million of these colour inkjet MFPs.

In terms of OEM market share, HP remains in first place with a global market share of 38.7 percent, despite a decline of 13.4 percent in shipments, down to 10 million units. The OE< also dominated in the USA, with a one percent gain in shipments on 1Q12. Canon achieved the best shipment growth with 13.7 percent, and shipped 5.3 million units, maintaining its position in second place, and it also saw growth in all regions except Japan.

Epson, despite a decline of 26.8 percent in units shipped, remains third with 3.9 million units shipped, with the US its strongest region. The OEM also saw its Workforce WF and Pro models enjoy a “significant uptick” in sales. Brother meanwhile consolidated its fourth place standing with a growth of 10.6 percent in sales, giving it a 20 percent share in the market, with no growth only in Japan, the Middle East and Africa.

Finally, Samsung remains in fifth place with 1.7 million units shipped and a fall of 2.7 percent over 2012. The OEM did however gain sales in the US and western Europe despite losing sales in the Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. The Recycler reported earlier this week that the western European hardcopy peripherals market had seen a drop of 14.5 percent in sales.

Phuong Hang, IDC’s Program Manager for Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker, stated: “Markets are changing and this is bringing about changes in strategy and product portfolios. The key areas of focus for many vendors are mobility, the cloud, and how users access material for printing.

“With many workers either working from home or working remotely several times per week, they must be able to access their company information and, in many cases, print this information from a variety devices and locations. The key for manufacturers will be the ability to offer this in a format that makes it simple and easy for the business and its users.”

You can view the tables and statistics from IDC’s latest results below.

 

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Tags : Business Market Data Technology

Cartridge World launches nationwide amnesty in wake of BBC Watchdog exposé

May 14, 2013

 Cartridge franchise encourages consumers to buy non-OEM supplies following TV programme’s investigation into high cartridge prices.

A nationwide amnesty has been launched by Cartridge World in the UK enabling consumers to save “between 30 and 50 percent” by using refilled ink cartridges following BBC Watchdog’s recent investigation of branded cartridge prices, which was helped by the cartridge franchise.

The consumer affairs programme, broadcast on 1 May, looked into the inflated cost of ink in branded cartridges as well as the significant reduction in ink levels present in OEM cartridges, the page yield and the failure of manufacturers to inform consumers of the ink volumes on cartridge packaging.

The decreasing size of the sponge holding the ink within cartridges, which was reported by UK retailer HPinkcartridges.co.uk last year, was also covered in the programme, which noted that as a result, less ink could be stored in the cartridges and so consumers are spending more for printing ink per millilitre than they would spend on the equivalent volume of vintage champagne or high-end perfume.

In response to the programme, Cartridge World is now urging shoppers to visit participating stores and take part in its amnesty against the unwarranted cost of branded ink cartridges by swapping their empty OEM cartridges for a refilled Cartridge World product at 50 percent off the retail price. The amnesty will run until 16 May.

Commenting on Cartridge World’s actions, John Richardson, Chairman of the company, said: “We welcomed the investigation conducted by Watchdog as we feel very passionately that the cost of branded printer ink cartridges has become unreasonable. This will help us raise awareness amongst consumers that there is a cheaper and equally viable alternative.”

Richardson added: “Many feel they have no other option as the original manufacturer brands continue to peddle the myth that if you don’t use their expensive products the warranty will be void, the cartridge will not work properly or it will even damage the printer. This is simply not true. It’s scandalous but it doesn’t have to be this way – thankfully we can offer a solution.”

A further point Richardson makes is the effect used cartridges have on the environment, emphasising the benefits of refilling and recycling empty cartridges: “Ensuring the consumer receives good value for money isn’t our only priority.  We are equally as concerned about the amount of printer cartridges, which have a much longer shelf life, going into landfill unnecessarily.  Many brands are making it increasingly difficult for reputable operations like us, to recycle their products. There is no reason for them to do this from a functionality perspective as a cartridge can be recycled as many as five times in its life.

“Printing really doesn’t have to cost the earth and with expert advice shoppers can save money and waste going into landfill while maintaining high quality home printing.”

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Tags : Cartridge World Remanufacturing UK

MPS report identifies changes in market

May 10, 2013

Evolution of MPS set out in report by IT and business analysis firm Quocirca, with Xerox named as top MPS provider.

The report, titled “Managed Print Services Landscape, 2013”, details the growing MPS market and the ways in which it continues to evolve, with Xerox leading the way for MPS providers due to the breadth of its services portfolio.

The transformation of the MPS market from the core services of device consolidation and optimisation to the favouring of long-term business improvement is highlighted, with the report noting that as enterprises move to next generation MPS contracts, they are looking to drive further cost savings and productivity improvements.

The report also notes how MPS leaders have begun to offer a variety of business process optimisation capabilities; including business process services (BPS) and IT services (ITS), as customers expect innovation, industry expertise, customised solutions and a commitment to continuous improvement on top of the traditional cost savings and efficiency initiatives gained from rationalising the print infrastructure. This particularly applies to larger businesses with over 10,000 employees, with 51 percent indicating that they have moved beyond traditional MPS to include business process improvement.

Further necessary changes to the MPS market include the catering for mobile devices, with the report finding that 20 percent of organisations have already included mobile printing as part of their MPS contract and a further 44 percent indicating that they are planning to do so. An example of this is the provision of an integrated cloud-based mobile print platform that have the same levels of security and control as printing from laptops or desktops.

The growing adoption of print security measures is also recognised in the report, which shows that an increasing number of organisations are deploying or planning to deploy secure “pull printing”, which ensures documents can only be viewed by authorised users.

Digital and paper workflows are increasingly being integrated to meet the needs of big data, which is becoming a greater focus for many large enterprises as they struggle to deal with the increasing volumes and diversity of corporate data. Quocirca therefore believes that MPS providers with mature business process expertise will be best positioned to articulate a strong proposition around big data.

In terms of MPS providers, OPI reports that HP, Ricoh, Lexmark and Canon were all recognised for their efforts in strengthening market presence, while Konica Minolta and Kyocera were also deemed “strong performers” after making recent progress in the market.

However Xerox were named as worldwide market leaders for the fourth consecutive year, with Louella Fernandes, Principal Analyst at Quocirca, commenting: “Xerox excels in its broad coverage of enterprise offerings across office, mobile, production and offsite commercial environments. Xerox continues to make differentiating investments for the marketplace with new assessment and reporting tools that provide customers with predictive analytics to simplify their print environment, and use the data to further cost savings and productivity benefits.”

Mike Feldman, Senior Vice President of Xerox Global Document Outsourcing and Managed Print Services, said: “Xerox continues to expand the value of MPS by bringing customers new services and solutions for accessing data and content. We’re setting the bar higher by taking what we learn from the print environment and building it into content management and business process automation strategies – so customers also benefit from ways to work smarter and speed time to revenue.”

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Tags : Market Data MPS Xerox

Lexmark survey presents EU misconceptions about laser printer supplies

May 3, 2013

The survey of European office workers found that many have next to no idea about the use, cost or quality of laser printer supplies.

The Lexmark survey, which questioned office workers across Europe, found “knowledge to be very low” regarding laser printer supplies, noting that “common beliefs and misconceptions” were widely held by those surveyed, including those thinking they would have to pay to recycle cartridges.

Lexmark notes that the “better insight” into capabilities that should be available to those surveyed would allow “more informed decisions” about buying products, saving users money and time. Among the most startling statistics were that 75 percent “don’t know how many pages their printer cartridge should print”, and 28 percent believing they must “pay themselves to recycle an empty toner cartridge”.

Other findings included 84 percent of those surveyed having “no idea how many more pages they can print” after a low toner warning appears, as well as 50 percent believing that “the more expensive the toner cartridge, the higher the print cost per page”. Three out of five of the office workers asked also stated that they believe the quality of printing “goes down the less toner there is in the cartridge”.

Lexmark responded to the idea of poorer quality in comparison to toner levels by adding that “the cartridge will require a shake or two for best results” after a low toner warning, also advocating its own Unison toner, which features a “shake free system” and can “reveal the exact number of pages that can still be printed”.

Moving on from this, the OEM added that “some toner may be lost” in swapping to a new cartridge too soon, but added “this is not true for all printers”, with its own able to “analyse printing habits” and “better calculate the number of remaining pages that can be printed”. It also debunked the idea that cost per page increases with cartridge pricing, adding that “the higher the price of the toner cartridge for a specific printer segment, in general the greater number of printed pages that can be produced and the lower the overall cost per page”.

The survey was compiled from asking 664 office workers from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK, with the results collected this year.

Danny Molhoek, General Manager at Lexmark UK and Ireland, said of the results: “Our survey shows that many people have little knowledge of what they can expect from their printer supplies and several misconceptions about capabilities and costs.

“Whilst some of these may have been true in the past, technology as ever is advancing. Cost per page is getting lower whilst the yield, reliability and sustainability of products is increasing all the time.”

What do you think about these findings? What do you believe could or needs to be done to improve public knowledge about supplies, in particular recycling cartridges? Contact The Recycler by commenting below or emailing us at news@therecycler.com.

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Tags : Europe Lexmark Printing

British consumer rights programme discusses shrinking cartridges

May 2, 2013

BBC’s Watchdog show interviewed industry representatives about the rising costs of inkjet cartridges.

The programme, regularly shown on the BBC 1 channel, champions consumer rights and helps expose bad business, and in its episode screened on 1 May, the show featured a piece on the rising prices of inkjet cartridges in comparison to their shrinking size.

The issue, which has previously been covered by British newspapers including the Guardian and the Daily Mail, was taken up by Watchdog through guest presenter Rick Wakeman, former keyboardist for progressive rock band Yes.

Wakeman converses with Cartridge World Aylesbury’s Sarah Dyckhoff and UKCRA and Promax’s Chris Brooks in the piece, which highlights HP’s rising inkjet prices and compares the price of ink to other expensive liquids.

The show presented the statement that ink is the “most expensive liquid”, with HP’s inkjet cartridges containing only five millilitres of ink at a cost of £12 ($18.67/€14.17), equating to a litre costing £2,400 ($3,735/€2,835).Another comparison made is that 4,000 litres of crude oil would cost this much, or 68 bottles of premium whisky.

Dyckhoff shows the camera the differing sizes of the sponges within the HP inkjet cartridges and their shrinking over the past few years, with the programme noting that whilst the HP inkjet cartridges are cheaper to buy, they hold “less than a third of the ink” of previous cartridges. Industry website HPinkcartridges.co.uk previously showcased the sponge issue last year.

Wakeman also discusses Canon and Epson’s shrinking cartridge sizes, noting that Canon’s cartridges have shrunk from 26 to 15 millilitres, whilst Epson’s have almost halved from 13 to seven militaries. Despite Epson halving the price of their inkjet cartridges, the ink would still work out at £1,140 ($1,774/€1,346) a litre.

The show moved on to hypothesise how much money it would cost for Wakeman to set up his own cartridge manufacturing business, with the presenter taking a call from Promax’s Brooks on how much each part of the cartridge would cost. The final cost of making a cartridge was worked out to be 29 pence (45 US cents/34 Euro cents).

The culmination of the section on cartridges focused on Epson and HP’s responses to the programme’s findings, with Epson stating that technological advances mean higher prices are necessary, and that it can only guarantee original cartridges will work. HP meanwhile stated that the increased prices help progress technology, and recommended consumers buy multipacks for cheaper costs.

The programme can be viewed here (UK users only), with the piece on cartridges beginning at the 43:50 mark.

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Tags : OEM Remanufacturing UKCRA

Truckloads of counterfeit cartridges seized in Russia

May 1, 2013

Raid by Russian law enforcement results in seizure of three truckloads of fake HP cartridges.

Russian radio website Radiovesti reports that the largest raid conducted against counterfeiters in Russia in two years was carried out in December 2012, and resulted in the seizure of more than four thousand counterfeit printer cartridges claiming to be HP products.

Three truckloads of illegal products were seized during the raid, which took place at production and storage facilities in a closed research institute, where counterfeit goods were packed in second-hand original packaging ready for selling. All packaging was also confiscated by the law enforcement authorities.

The case saw the biggest number of cartridges seized in a raid in Russia for two years, with another similar raid in February uncovering 2,500 counterfeit HP-branded cartridges.

According to the article, Colonel Konstantin Grakhovo, Deputy Chief of customs control after the release of the goods from Moscow customs, commented that the agency is “committed to pursue and bring to justice the manufacturers of counterfeit products which contain unknown chemicals that damage the printer, capable of inflicting damage to the environment”, adding that the seizure of the products is likely to lead to further anti-counterfeiting activities in the region.

Despite the raids, the article notes that according to research by Forrester Consulting, Russia was found to have one of the lowest levels of counterfeit HP cartridges in the EMEA region, with around 11 percent of organisations indicating that they had encountered counterfeit cartridges compared to 23 percent of organisations in the UAE, 31 percent in Algeria and 50 percent in Nigeria.

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Tags : Counterfeiting Crime Russia

The Recycler wins Media Pioneer award

April 29, 2013

The Recycler’s David Connett and Stefanie Unland were presented with the award at the Specialist Media conference held at the British Library on 24 April.

The Recycler is excited to announce that the company’s ground-breaking publishing management system has won a Media Pioneer award, which has helped to cut costs and simplify the production process. The Recycler was chosen for the award from a shortlist of 21 media-related businesses, and was presented with the award by Carolyn Morgan of Specialist Media Show. A video of the awards conference can be viewed below. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuCnJMUVdak).

The system uses the Jonyx enterprise resource planning (ERP) architecture, and has successfully integrated The Recycler’s  subscription management, media campaign planning and sales, magazine (flat) planning and invoicing systems; allowing The Recycler to save significant costs and identify new premium subscription products, whilst also streamlining the magazine production and subscription process.

David Connett, Publisher and Editor of The Recycler, said: “In 2006 we had around 100,000 different contacts on a number of different spread-sheets. Six years later, we have Jonyx, which we went live with at the end of last year, and instead of having 12 people doing everything manually, the whole process is automated- so it worked!”

The Media Pioneer Awards celebrate innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in specialist media markets with this year’s awards being judged by Colin Morrison, former CEO at Emap, Reed, Future, ACP, Axel Springer and now non-exec at Centaur, Travel Weekly; Andy Marshall, former MD Origin and now MD at Immediate Media; Peter Houston, Media Pioneer Award winner in 2011 and now Founder of Flipping Pages Media; and James Evelegh, Publisher & Editor atInPublishing.

To find out more about the Jonyx software and the possibilities of utilising it for your business, visit www.jonyx.de.

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Tags : Business UK

InfoTrends to conduct study on North American and European clone cartridge market

April 26, 2013

Study will investigate clones market in regions and educate channel partners and government agencies on potential risks.

Market research firm InfoTrends has introduced a new study, “North American and European Clone Cartridge market”, that will investigate market penetration and routes to market and channel awareness for clone laser and inkjet cartridges, as well as provide insights and tools to educate channel players and government agencies on the potential risks of clones.

Defining clone cartridges as “toner, OPC drum and inkjet cartridges that are made from all-new parts [and] do not require an empty OEM cartridge in their production”, InfoTrends notes that there is a need to understand what the channels believe or do not believe about clones as resellers are the main route to market for clones. It aims to find out how aware channels are of the risks and negative impacts associated with clones on themselves and the industry and what education is required to prevent these.

The main objectives of the study will be to size and forecast the penetration of clone cartridges, investigate route to market for clone products, investigate channel awareness and attitudes to clone products, describe the domestic remanufacturers’ interaction with clone products, determine industry opinion on where the harm is, address sustainability issues i.e. end of life solutions for clones, cover government/ISO issues, and research whether OEM identification issues are valued.

Furthermore, the study will see the purchase of supplies products that appear to be clones based on price but are described as something other than clones/newly made compatibles in order to gauge the extent to which clones are mischaracterized as something else to the end user.

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Tags : Clones InfoTrends

ETIRA launches new website

April 23, 2013

European Toner and Inkjet Remanufacturers Association enhances website to provide up-to-date information for the aftermarket industry.

ETIRA has launched a new website to enable its members and others in the aftermarket industry to keep up-to-date with the latest news, information and issues regarding the industry, learn about ETIRA itself and look for companies that are ETIRA members in different countries.

The website is also linked to The Recycler’s news feed so that any news relating to ETIRA can be viewed easily; and features a page with information about cartridge remanufacturing including ‘Key Facts’ about remanufacturing in Europe and why reusing cartridges is important.

Commenting on the new website, Vincent van Dijk, Secretary General of ETIRA, said: “As planned last year, the 10th anniversary of ETIRA called for an update of our website. Thanks to the help of The Recycler (thank you Stefanie and David and your team), it is now live!

“Although we wanted to stay true to our existing logo and infobase, the new website has a fresh look and includes even more tools to upload news easier and faster. During the coming months the old information on the site will be updated.”

Check out the new look and feel of the website (as well as your company’s details in the ‘Find Members’  section) on www.etira.org.

Tags: ETIRA, Remanufacturing, Europe

Categories : Rank 1

Tags : ETIRA Europe Remanufacturing