Epson India is aiming for a turnover of over Rs 900 crore in inkjet printers, led by a rise in demand from both home users and offices.

The Indian arm of Japanese firm Seiko Epson Corporation clocked a business of Rs 760 crore from inkjet printers last year.

“In the last 4-5 years, we have posted a compounded growth of around 20 per cent. We expect a similar growth this year. We have grown our market share to 45.03 per cent from 42.08 per cent,” said Satyajeet Satpathy, director of inkjet printers, Epson India.

The company is betting on higher demand from home users, small business outlets, small corporate offices as well as those needing higher volumes at low cost and less power consumption.

“The home segment focus continues to remain and we anticipate its share in the revenue to increase this year. The jobber market is also growing. These are typically photocopy shops, DTP and small business outlets looking at value-for-money solutions. We are also seeing demand from small offices,” said Satpathy.

The company has moved from cartridge to ink-tank technology for inkjet printers.

Market watch

According to IDC India, the hardcopy peripheral market had reported quarterly shipments of 1.1 million units in the third quarter of 2018 (calendar year). This was a growth of 25.6 per cent over the previous quarter.

Inkjet printer shipments rose 5.5 per cent, led by ink-tank printers, which recorded a year-on-year growth of 12.9 per cent. While the overall laser printer market declined because of the government’s efforts to enforce restrictions on the refurbished copier market, the laser copier market grew 37.5 per cent.

“Ink-tank printers will continue to gain traction and compensate for the decline in shipments of laser printers. The government’s continuous efforts on a crackdown on reconditioned copier market should also translate into strong demand for original laser copiers,” said Nishant Bansal, research manager of IDC India.