Printer maker Epson India, part of Japanese major Seiko Epson, is eyeing a near 20 per cent growth in FY19, as it targets a revenue of around ₹2,000 crore.

Growth will primarily come from higher sales in the home segment. This apart, retail and corporate are the two other segments where the company will look to push its offerings.

Epson India has been pitching its ink tank-based printers as a “cost-effective” alternative to the still popular cartridge-based printers. In fact, Epson moved out of ink cartridge or laser-tech based printer models, both globally and in India.

Ink cartridges refer to ink containers that have an in-built print head. These cartridges are filled with liquid ink, which is then used by the device for print-outs. On the other hand, ink tanks do not contain any in-built print head. Ink tanks have individual colour tanks made up of cyan, yellow and magenta and a black tank.

“We have been growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 20 per cent and targeting a turnover of around ₹2,000 crore by March,” Satyajeet Satpathy, Director – IJP/SCN/SIDM/SP, Epson India, told BusinessLine .

“The ink tank technology-based printers come at a lower per page printing cost which will help drive sales for the home and retail segments,” he added.

HP Inc, Canon and Brother are the other major players in India, apart from Epson.

Home segment

According to Satpathy, the company’s ink tank printers target parents of school-going children and are presented as an affordable solution to address their printing needs for projects and homework. Home segment users would previously take 100-odd print-outs a month. But now, they are going for some 800 pages a month. Of every 100 printers sold, nearly 70 are to the home segment. The rest are picked up by corporates, small businesses and others, he said.

Cost-effective

Satpathy admits that ink tank printers are nearly 70 per cent more premium than older cartridge-based models. But, the former is cost-effective.

Under the ink tank technology, Epson claims that the cost of per page print-out is “seven paise” for a black and white print; and, a colour print-out comes at 18 paise. Against this, the cartridge-based printing cost comes at ₹1.50 (black and white) and ₹5 (colour), respectively.

The other big target is replacement sales (older ink cartridge printers being replaced with new tech-based ones). Of every 100 printers replaced, nearly 60-65 are with ink tank ones.