Brother eyes 15% rise in printer sales

Takao Shima, managing director of Brother Commercial (Thailand), said yesterday the company's sales in the fiscal year ended March had increased by 10 per cent.

It expects this year to continue that sales pace or run even faster despite the sluggishness in the domestic printer market.

Brother has a policy not to disclose its annual revenue.

The company's sales this year will be driven by its flagship product - multifunction laser printers - which have been the best seller in this segment since 2006.

Brother is the market leader in this segment with a share of 29 per cent and plans to retain its pole position this year.

Teerawut Supapunpinyo, general manager for sales and marketing, said IDC - the IT market research house - forecast early this year the value of the printer market this year would decline by 0-5 per cent. However, he does not have the exact figure for the market last year.

Brother is confident its sales will do better than the competition due to its marketing strategy this year.

The main interest in the enterprise segment was academic institutions, banks, financial institutions and government agencies. At present, Brother's products are strong among SMEs.

"The corporate segment is a promising market for us. Some people in the printer business may think that the world recession has pressured enterprises to squeeze their operating costs.

"But we believe that the crisis has forced them to choose to spend on a multifunction printer with high quality in order to get effective results, which will be good for their business in the long run.

"For that reason, we also believe that printers in the mid-high markets will be good this year compared with the low-end segment," he said.

Brother plans to launch about 10 printer series this year, starting in September, aimed at the mid-high markets.

It recently held a seminar with its dealers across the nation to train them on mid-high products and how to approach the corporate market.

Brother would increase its dealers nationwide to 250 from 150 now and also expand its service centres from the current 142 in 68 provinces to cover all provinces by the end of this year.