Friday, Jul 10, 2009

Gulf News

Dubai: The hardcopy peripherals (HCP) market in the Gulf region is forecast to plunge 8.8 per cent to 1.45 million units in 2009 compared to 1.59 million units last year as the companies shift focus to survive the downturn with cost-cutting initiatives, said an industry expert.

"In 2009 and subsequent years, vendors need to diversify their vertical focus. The small- and medium-sized business segment and healthcare and education sectors in the Gulf are expected to continue their growth. End users will become more price sensitive, and so vendors need to aggressively push attractively priced products. Peripheral replacement cycles will lengthen, resulting in increased demand for consumables. This should motivate vendors to offer service contracts, full printing solutions, and managed print services to help guarantee revenue streams in the long term," said Mohammad Al Noueiri, senior research analyst with IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey.

HCP consists of printers, multi-functional printers, and single-function copiers.

In the first quarter of 2009, the Gulf market fell 4.7 per cent in volume compared to the first quarter of 2008, to stand at 408,494 shipments. With the exception of Saudi Arabia, all Gulf countries experienced a significant year-on-year volume decline, attributed mainly to the impact of the financial crisis in the Gulf countries.

Saudi Arabia recorded 28.9 per cent growth in the first quarter to 216,907 units compared to 168,214 units in the first quarter of 2008.

In the UAE, first-quarter shipments fell about 29 per cent to 130,403 units compared to 183,833 units as many construction projects were postponed or shelved in addition to a slowdown in the retail market.

"At the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009, companies in the Gulf set aside investments in hardcopy peripherals and shifted focus to surviving the crisis with cost-cutting initiatives.

'The previous surge in demand across the Gulf had been greatly driven by the boom in the real estate and financial sectors, but unfortunately both were severely impacted," said Al Noueiri

Despite the decline in the overall market, sales of multifunctional peripherals (MFPs) in the Gulf recorded marginal growth, as units increased 1.2 per cent year on year in first quarter of 2009 to 208,413. However, single-function (SF) printer sales fell 7.6 per cent to reach 197,274 over the same period.

"Due to the economic recession which started in the fourth quarter of 2008, all printer brands have faced some difficulties due to shrinkage in the market size. The demand for inkjet printers remained stagnant due to the drop in consumer sentiment resulting from the weak economy. The demand for MFPs and laser beam printers remained sluggish for both monochrome and colour models due to the market reluctance in purchasing new office equipment. Taking into account these factors, the Middle East market for printers contracted," Hendrik Verbrugghe, Marketing Manager, Canon Middle East, said.

He said since January this year, in both the laser and inkjet printer categories, they have seen results picking up.

"The second quarter will certainly be better than the first quarter and we expect this trend to continue for the rest of 2009. The general trend in the printer market for all brands including Canon is the move from single function printer to multifunctional printers and the move to colour printers in the laser category. These developments will potentially create an increased end-user demand which will lead to business growth for years to come," Verbrugghe said.

"With the region's colour laser printer and MFPs market projected to expand by approximately 15 per cent in 2009, we have outlined plans to launch a new range of products towards the end of the year. We are also expecting growth in the mono laser MFC segments, albeit marginal due to the anticipated dip in the UAE's overall print market in 2009," Shinji Tada, managing director, Brother International Gulf, said.

'We are expecting to double the market presence of our colour laser MFC market in the UAE in 2009, in anticipation of the projected surge in the laser MFC markets by 2010. We are eyeing a 100 per cent growth from our current sales figures by 2012," Tada said.

"As of the fourth quarter of 2008, MFPs overtook SF printers as the dominant product in the Gulf market. This shift toward MFPs is noticeable in both the inkjet and laser segments. Vendors have been narrowing the price gap between the SF and MFP markets; in addition, end users are now better educated about the benefits and cost savings attained by owning multifunctional devices," Al Noueiri said.

By Naushad K Cherrayil, Staff Reporter

© Gulf News 2009. All rights reserved.

 

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