Inkjet Wholesale News aims to provide updates on the latest significant occurrences in the field of printing. Whether it’s the launch of a new technology or volatility of market prices, we’ll be here to give you the lowdown on what happened, when it happened, and what it means!
Xerox’s Anti Counterfeit Measures Getting More Aggressive Globally
Counterfeiting is a big problem for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). If you’ve been following this blog, then you already know that various OEMs have been trying to secure their markets better by countering the efforts of counterfeiters in various locations. Efforts have been on with regard to everything ranging from specialised chips to counter imitation in the first place to actually catching sellers of imitated products.
Now, it seems like another OEM has gotten in on the act with Xerox’s anti counterfeit measures yielding results on a massively global scale. Xerox, apparently, has been cooperating with a number of governments all over the world to counter the efforts of counterfeiters. Xerox’s cooperation with various governments yielded the OEM multiple results in the form of legal trademark enforcement actions, seizures of counterfeit products, as well as raids designed to catch the culprits.
Xerox’s anti counterfeit measures yielding resulted in operations being mounted in nations as far – flung as Morocco, India, and Turkey. In Morocco, Xerox’s anti counterfeit measures resulted in thousands of fake cartridges being seized when a raid was conducted at a factory. The factory was operated by an importer and distributor of Xerox cartridges who has been reprimanded into police custody since. The value of Xerox cartridges captured by these Xerox’s anti counterfeit measures is estimated to be USD 2.5 million.
A similar operation was undertaken against a copier and printer dealer in Mumbai, India which again resulted in thousands of counterfeit Xerox toner cartridges being seized. Xerox’s anti counterfeit measures in Mumbai are expected to save the company around USD 25,000.
Finally, Xerox’s anti counterfeit measures yielded two raids in Antalya, Turkey. The first raid in Antalya didn’t only result in Xerox counterfeit cartridges being seized but also counterfeit products from other OEMs. Furthermore, the Turkish raid caused the confiscation of various OEM packaging materials, labels, and printer plates. The combined value of the counterfeit products seized in Antalya due to Xerox’s anti counterfeit measures comes out to be USD 1.2 million.
The second raid in Antalya was against a warehouse where the suppliers mixed original Xerox cartridges with counterfeit Xerox cartridges before sending out the combined package to retailers all over the southern Turkish region.
Along with this, on various occasions, Xerox has also used its intellectual property rights against dealers and distributors who use its trademarks to sell aftermarket cartridges and other supplies. The most recent example of such an effort from Xerox occurred in Romania where the OEM chose to enforce its intellectual property rights against resellers who were selling products under Xerox’s trademarks. The effort from Xerox resulted in the infringing products being taken off the market and the resellers legally agreeing to only sell genuine Xerox consumables.
As mentioned already, Xerox isn’t the only OEM in the world trying to fight back against counterfeiters. According to The Imaging Supplies Coalition, a non-profit trade organisation created by all the OEMs, the imaging industry loses no less than USD 3.5 billion to counterfeit products on a worldwide basis. Furthermore, that projected monetary loss doesn’t even take into account potential financial losses incurred through loss of face or reputation.
The biggest problem that OEMs have with counterfeiters, and the biggest reason for these anti counterfeiting drives, is the fact that counterfeited consumables have an extremely high failure rate. When a customer uses failing counterfeited consumables thinking them to be genuine consumables from the OEM, it is possible that they think that the OEM created a bad product. Moreover, malfunctioning counterfeited consumables can also end up causing significant damage to various printer components.
Epson to Expand into Indonesian Market by Adding to Its Indonesian Manufacturing Unit’s Total Area
Indonesia is considered to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world. It is said to have an approximate Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of about 5.8 percent. Looking at the speed with which the Asian country is growing, it isn’t surprising to see that OEMs are trying to tap into this new market.
As per reports in Indonesian media, Epson is going to expand further into this fast developing market. Indonesia Epson, according to the company’s General Manager Emile Pattiwael, has already created more space in its manufacturing unit so as to be able to manufacture higher end products.
As per Jakarta Post, an expansion project worth USD 3 million was commissioned and completed to expand the manufacturing space of the Epson unit located in Cikarang, West Java, Indonesia. The project has resulted in the effective space of the entire unit growing to 25 hectares. As is obvious, the expansion capacity of the manufacturing unit will remain the same at around six to seven million printers per annum but the company will be able to now incorporate more advanced models into the manufacturing mix.
The General Manager of the company also specified that the manufacturing plant has already resumed operations but formal inauguration of the plant will take place later this year in April.
Epson has been present in Cikarang for about two decades now. While citing this fact, the company’s President Director, Eichi Abe, also stated that the OEM had chosen Indonesia as its base of operations because of its “huge and high quality workforce”. He also specified that the OEM is committed to expanding its presence in the country. It is also worth mentioning that the Indonesian economy is growing because of its high quality workforce being available to international manufacturers at highly affordable prices.
Epson has another manufacturing facility in the country located in Batarn. The Batarn plant produces ink cartridges for the company. The printers and ink cartridges produced in Indonesia are exported all over the world including countries in the Americas, Europe, Japan, and Asia Pacific. Apart from Indonesia, Epson has manufacturing units in other countries like Philippines and China.
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