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Some Improvement for Inkjet-Printer Sales in Western Europe in Fourth Quarter

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London-based IT market-research firm CONTEXT reports that distributors across Western Europe saw the ongoing decline in sales of business inkjets soften in fourth-quarter 2017 with revenues flat, which was an improvement on previous quarters, according to data published by CONTEXT.

The year-over-year decline in distributor sales stood at -4 percent for both the quarter and the year as a whole. Revenues remained constant due to a 3 percent price increase, as  ASP (asking selling price) reached €119, due to changes in the product mix ,with vendors introducing more expensive business inkjets that feature advances in technology.

HP Inc. continues to lead with a market share of 56 percent, followed by Epson, which had a share of 31 percent in fourth-quarter 2017. They were followed by Brother International and Canon Europe at 7 and 4 percent, respectively. All vendors saw quarterly sales decline, except for Canon, whose sales increased 14 percent year-over-year on a small base.

“Sales of business inkjets grew in most major Western European countries”, said Zivile Brazdziunaite, Imaging Market Analyst at CONTEXT. “However, in Germany, which is the largest market in the region, there was a strong decline in fourth-quarter 2017 with sales falling by -12 percent year-on-year.”

Distributor sales of business inkjets increased by 15 percent in France and returned to growth in Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom. CONTEXT says that the positive performance in these countries is mainly due to higher sales of A3 business inkjets.

Although A3 printers account for less than 20 percent of all business inkjets sold by Western Europe distributors, sales continue to increase and grew by 3 percent year-over-year in fourth-quarter 2017. The main driver of this was HP Inc, which performed well in retail and small and mid-size business (SMB) channels, and saw its share of the segment increase to 38 percent, with distribution sales of both low-end and high-end A3 business inkjets increasing. At the high end, where Epson dominates, HP’s growth was mainly due to sales of its new PageWide inkjet models, which it started selling in third-quarter 2017. Brother holds a share of 35 percent in the segment, followed by Epson with 20 percent share.

Country split

Germany -12.2%
 Italy 3.5%
 United Kingdom 1.9%
 Spain 5.8%
 France 15.3%
 Netherlands -19.2%
 Switzerland -33.7%
 Austria -2.2%
 Belgium -22.3%
 Sweden 91.6%
 Portugal -5.9%
 Poland 7.2%

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