Toshiba announces scandal:
- Company announced it has cancelled a scheduled dividend payment and withdrew its earnings outlook
- This was result of an expanded investigation into accounting irregularities at the company
- A widened probe into its book-keeping, for the 2nd time in 2 years
- “has so far discovered cases in which building costs for infrastructure projects were under-reported and losses from construction work were inadequately booked”
- Has set up a 3rd party committee to ensure impartiality of investigation
- Company is not able to announce financial results for the latest fiscal year
- During a press conference in Tokyo, Japan, Toshiba’s CEO, Hisao Tanaka, bowed his head and apologized to shareholders for the scandal and for being unable to pay expected annual dividend
- Was not clear on when the investigation would be concluded
- “It’s a negative for investors and quite an embarrassment for a major company like Toshiba to withdraw figures.”; stated Mitsushige Akino, executive officer at Ichiyoshi Asset Management Company of Japan.
Toshiba details training for its sales force:
- The TEC division, which includes printer/MFP sales, announced it has hired Consalia Inc., a global sales performance improvement company
- The new training curriculum is called “Professional Practice in Leading Sales Transformation”
- The part time course takes a total of 2.5 years to complete
- Students are expected to dedicate 4 hours per week to complete the 5 modules
- Students must submit a 3,000 word report on each module
- Also must write a 12,000 word final dissertation
- Toshiba intends to launch a 1 year post graduate qualification and 2 year diploma
- Will help students improve their sales strategies, better connect with customers, build strong brands, shape their offerings and create long term growth
Toshiba joins Mopria Alliance:
- Alliance was formed to create new standard for wireless printing from mobile devices
- Most other printer and MFP vendors are already members
Sharp’s financial woes in the news:
- According to Reuters News Service, the company is considering using capital to reduce accumulated losses on its books
- This is an accounting maneuver that would allow loss-making company to resume dividend payment earlier
- Is set to receive a $1.7 billion bailout from banks in Japan in return for a promise to get rid of 5,000 employees
- Has about 20 billion yen accumulated losses on an unconsolidated basis for the fiscal year ending in March 2014
Ricoh to display production gear at trade show:
- Ricoh announced it will have a large booth at the inaugural edition of The Print Show
- Will be hold at National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England
- Will have on display a Pro C7100 and Pro C5100 production color systems
- Will also show a roll-to-roll latex color inkjet printer
Ricoh sued for patent infringement:
- Ricoh’s production print division sued by Raster Printing Innovations of Chicago, IL
- Alleges that Ricoh has infringed on several patents related to “high resolution real time raster image processing systems and methods”
- Requesting jury trial in the U.S. District Court located in Illinois
Ricoh wins production color contracts:
- Won contract from CMP, a commercial printer in Dorset, England
- Installed two Ricoh Pro C901 production color systems
- Will be used to produce postcards, direct mail and business cards
- Chose the C901 for its speed of 90ppm on thick stock, print quality, front to back registration and color accuracy
- Won contract from Smart Print of Welwyn Garden City, England
- Installed two Pro C9100 production color systems
- Chose as devices provide 130ppm top speed, and auto duplex of up to 400gsm
- Won contract from Lantia of Houston, Texas
- Installed Pro C5100 production color system and Pro 8120 production b/w system
- Will be used to produce on demand books
- Chose because “Ricoh provided professional training to determine how to best drive systems in the most effective and productive way and improve the overall printing process”
Kodak reports last quarter’s numbers:
- 12.5% drop in revenue to $427 million
- 12% decline in Print Systems Division sales
- 19% drop in Enterprise Inkjet Systems Division revenue
- Net loss of $54 million
Xerox and HP executives to speak at event:
- Will speak at Sales Dot Two (Sales 2.0) event, sponsored by Selling Power magazine
- Held in Philadelphia, PA at Ritz Carlton
- Theme is sales transformation
- Kevin Warren, Xerox President of Strategic Growth Initiatives will “discuss how sales leaders can transform by creating new opportunities for change, by offering advice on making a prospect a believers in your personal brand, ultimately giving your product and services portfolio exponentially more value”
- Kevin Purcell, Hewlett Packard’s President of Vertical Big Data Sales will speak about “power of big data, and share new ways sales leaders can think about sales data and how it can help them make strategic decisions that will increase value”
Copier dealer association gives out awards:
- The Business Technology Association (BTA) recently presented its annual Channel Choice awards to vendors:
- Konica Minolta won awards for Corporate Support and Inventory Performance
- Sharp won the Superior Performance, Distribution and Product Line awards
- Kyocera won the Outstanding Performance as Secondary Product Line Provider award
Xerox cuts its earnings outlook for year:
- Now expected adjusted earnings of 95 cents per share, down from its previous forecast of $1.06 per share
- Expects revenue to fall 1%, while it had previously forecast revenue would be flat for the year
- Forecasts per share earnings of 23 cents for current quarter
- Morningstar analysts reduce their credit rating for Xerox to “BBB-“, suggesting that company is a moderate credit risk
Xerox customer prints 10,000 books:
- The Self-Publishing Centre at the Windsor Public Library of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, announced it has now printed a total of 10,000 books since launching service
- Library uses a Xerox Espresso Book Machine, which uses a black/white printer and color printer, along with finishing system to produce paperback books on demand
Xerox wins production print contract:
- Won contract from Tunleys Mail and Print of South Africa
- Installed a Xerox Impika production color inkjet system
- Will be used to produce bank statements/transpromo
Samsung to make huge investment:
- Has begun construction on a new chip manufacturing plant
- Total cost of $14.3 billion
- the site is the size of 400 soccer fields
Metrofuser announces product for HP devices:
- announced release of “Flash-It Tool”
- allows owners of Hewlett Packard LaserJet Enterprise M830 b/w MFPs to extend life of fusers
- The HP MFPs are programmed to generate an error message reading “Replace Fuser” when the page count hits 200,000 pages
- The Metrofuser product clears the message and sets fuser life to 100% for end users that do not want to replace fuser
Brother expects growth in printer market:
- Toshiaki Isayama, Managing Director for Brother, was interviewed in Business Standard newspaper of India
- “We have a market share of 6% in laser and 4% in inkjet segment. We are aiming at 25% in laser and 15% in inkjet segment by 2017.”
- “Extremely low cost per page printing, smart designs and easy and hassle-free ink refilling experience will be the drivers for the sharp growth”
- Has launched a new line of color inkjet MFPs in the country of India, that use user refillable inkjet tanks (similar to what Epson recently launched), and unknown when these products would come to U.S. market
Brother posted its last fiscal year’s numbers:
- Missed its full year sales target
- For FY2015, expects sales growth but less than 1% growth in operating income
- Net sales totaled $5.9 billion up 14.7%
- Operating income of $481.8 million, up 32.9%
- Net income of $452.4 million, up 180.8% (due to a gain on sale of property)
- Printer/MFP division sales up 10.1% to 474.3 billion yen with operating income of $299.3 million, up 15.4%
Canon wins production color system contract:
- placed a new imagePRESS C800 at Navin Digitech of Indore, India
- will be used to produce photobooks and coffee table books
Canon announces sponsorship:
- is the official camera and printer vendor for Little League Baseball and Softball
- launched photo contest with entrants getting change to win trip to Little League Baseball World Series in South Williamsport, PA
Avery Corp. reports jump in sales:
- Reported an increase of 20% in sales during last quarter
- Company makes labels for laser and inkjet printers/MFPs
Compass Intelligence predicts cloud growth:
- The SMB (small to medium size business) market will grow from $43 billion in 2015 to $55 billion in 2016 for cloud computing adoption
- 37% of U.S. small businesses are adapted to the cloud, but an anticipated 78% will be fully cloud operational by 2010
- 65% are conducting back office work including bookkeeping and accounting with cloud based apps today
- 43% of small business owners use a smartphone as primary device to run their ops
- Most common cloud apps that SMBs are planning to adopt next:
- 63% = email/collaboration
- 55% = Web/eCommerce
- 56% = office tools/productivity
- 59% of SMBs using cloud services report significant productivity benefits
- 81% of U.S. companies with 100+ employees are using cloud based apps
HP reports milestone with its inkjet presses:
- Claims that its “T” series of inkjet presses have now produced 100 billion letter size pages printed worldwide
- Laid side by side, this would reach from earth to moon and back 36 times
HP wins production color system contract:
- Installed an Indigo WS6600 production color system
- Sold to 21st Century Labels and Packaging in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Will be used to produce labels, shrink films, folding cartons, pouches and stick packs
HP details lawsuit:
- Filed a $5 billion fraud case against founder of Autonomy Software of England, which is acquired in 2011 for $11 billion
- Claims that CEO, Mike Lynch, inflated revenues by $700 million over a 2.5 year period
7 companies try to create 3D standards:
- 7 leading companies in the global 3D printing sector have launched a new consortium, called 3MF
- New standard will be focuses on interoperability, functionality and standards in 3D
- To enable designs apps to send “full fidelity” 3D models to printers
- Existing formats, such as STL, have limitations around accuracy, ease of use, and functionality
- The consortium consists of:
- Dassault Systems
- FIT AG
- Microsoft
- Hewlett Packard
- Shapeways
- SLM Solutions Group
- Autodesk
Xeikon wins production color contract:
- Installed a Xeikon 8500 production color system (made in Belgium)
- Sold to Valtim Marketing Solutions of Forest, Virginia
- Will be used to produce personalized membership cards
U.S. Customs seizes print cartridges:
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents stopped 4 companies from importing cartridges into the U.S.that infringed on OEM patents
- Took place at the port in Long Beach, CA
- Product was advertised as genuine OEM
3D Systems now using wholesaler:
- Signed distribution agreement with Carolina Wholesale Group
- Purpose is to convince more copier dealers to resell the 3D printers
Commercial printers in U.S. see sales increase:
- The Department of Commerce reports that commercial printing shipments were up 4.8% in March, 2015
- This represents 10 months of +3% growth
- Current dollar monthly shipments were averaging $6.5 billion
- Printed catalogs totaled 13 billion in 2014, as compared to 11 billion in 2013
Laserfiche wins ECM contract:
- Won contract from the government of Iraq for its Oil, Justice, Industry and Security departments
- Uses an Arabic interface
- The Rio system now installed in a total of 12 locations in Baghdad
Large dealer gets larger:
- DEX Imaging announced it acquired Mid South Digital
- Mid South had 5 owners, John Dougherty, Drew Murrah, Harrison Harpole, Keithe Berryhill and Victor Laurent
- Mr. Dougherty and Mr. Berryhill will retire, with rest staying on
- DEX Imaging is headquartered in Tampa, FL, and chairman is Dan Doyle (former founder and CEO of DANKA), and CEO is Dan Doyle Jr.
- Mid South has offices in Memphis, TN, Tupelo, MS and Columbus, MS, servicing eastern Arkansas, northern Mississippi and southwest Tennessee
- DEX already had 31 locations in Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, and Maryland
- DEX has annual revenue before acquisition of over $150 million
- Has several more acquisitions planned in 2015 to take revenues over $200 million
Kyocera launches new solution:
- Launched Kyocera Net Manager, advertised as a server-based app that streamlines and secures document management
- Interface that creates shortcuts for complex processes
- Monitors and accounts for print, copy, fax and scan jobs
- Offers Print&Follow (aka follow me printing)
- Pricing not announced
3D printing contract win:
- All 49 schools in the Catholic Diocese of the City of Baltimore, Maryland will now have a 3D printer
- “The kids are just absolutely awestruck that something they’ve created on screen on the computer can now become a physical object that they can touch with their hands.”; stated Phil Lathroum, a teacher at one of the schools.
