Consumables' Revenue Declines By 2% In 2009, Reports Lyra, But Ink-Jet Systems May Help Lead Recovery
February 1, 2010 - The global economic recession has resulted in reduced consumer and business capital expenditures on printers and copiers worldwide, according to a new forecast released by Lyra Research, a market-research firm based in Newtonville, Massachusetts. According to Lyra, an oversupply of printer hardware, cartridges and associated media occurred in late 2008 and early 2009, with dealers responded by drastically cutting inventory levels. This resulted in a disproportionately large decline in product shipments to the channel versus unit sales to end users, resulting in the first-ever decline in consumables revenue: consumables' revenue in 2009 declined by 2 percent compared to 2008. (Lyra stresses that it's important to note that its Hard Copy Supplies Advisory Service forecast measures customer demand, which is most similar to channel sell-through metrics.)
However, according to Lyra Senior Analyst Andrew Lippman, there is some encouraging news on the horizon, with the Lyra forecasting that ink-jet systems will lead a recovery, “Print volumes for desktop ink-jet printers are expected to begin growing rapidly in 2012 as the technology enters more and more small-office environments. This will result in a corresponding increase in consumables for ink-jet printers.
Another Lyra senior analyst, Cortney Kasuba, adds that sales of A4 workgroup color MFPs will also help lead the recovery, “All of the toner sub-segments of the color MFP market are forecast to grow through 2013, with the largest revenue increase coming from the color workgroup MFP (A4-size color laser/LED MFPs) segment.”
Lyra has just released its Hard Copy Supplies Advisory Service second-half 2009 forecast, which includes three years of historical data (2006–2008) and five years of forecast data (2009–2013). The report is based on Lyra’s Forecast 360 methodology. For more information on the newly released Hard Copy Supplies Advisory Service forecast, contact Tom Sandock at 617-454-2621 or tsandock@lyra.com.