BB Somani

Cartridge re-manufacturing/refilling was completely an unorganized business
earlier. The sector has become organized post the entry of branded companies who
have forayed into this virtually virgin territory. The reasons were obvious. The
market holds huge opportunities as end-customers see it as a better option due
to the good quality of refilling and the economical factor. Now, the sector is
attracting a lot of new companies, but to an extent it is still an unorganized
sector.

Since the slowdown, the YoY growth of the printer industry has come down to
30 percent. On an average a printer consumes around one cartridge a month. So,
keeping that figure in mind we can assume that the cartridge industry is also
growing at a pace of 20 percent.

BB Somani CEO

The biggest and foremost challenge is the unorganized state of the industry.
Awareness is another major issue against players in the segment. In the past few
years, through branding exercises, the awareness level has gone up. Yet a large
number of customers are still unaware about the advantages of using refilled
cartridges. Some people are also skeptical about re-manufactured and refilled
cartridges. Further, the Original Equipment Manufacture (OEM) is also taking
advantage of low awareness level and is misleading users. At times, they also
tell users that the warranty of the printer will be null and void if they use
re-manufactured/refilled cartridge, which is unethical as well as illegal.

As opposed to most of the segments, slowdown has come as a blessing in
disguise for the refilling industry. Corporates are taking several cost cutting
measures to save operational expenditure. They now prefer to use refilled
cartridges, rather than buying a new one every time, which is quite expensive.
Last year, our revenue was Rs 1 crore, this year we will achieve a turnover of
Rs 4 crore by March end.

The only way to safeguard the interest of customer is to create more
awareness amongst them. We want a customer to go and demand for a certain brand,
rather than just ask for a normal refill. It will take another five years to
bring awareness to that level.