Epson's PoS business records steady growth

Office automation products major Epson which is known more
for its printer and all-in-one product lines has another business divi­sion
which is showing impre­s­­sive growth both in India and globally. This
lesser-known but large volume business is the Japanese company's Systems
Devices Division (SDD) that includes Point of Sales (PoS) devices. This product
division consi­sts of three product catego­ries-mini printer mechanism
(hardware that is incorpora­ted into OEM products); terminal module printers
and PoS systems.

SDD's sales of around Rs 32 crore in fiscal '05
accounted for 16 percent of Epson India's overall reve­nues. It is not just
the retail boom in India that is spurring the business of Epson's SDD, but
also other segments such as paper lottery. “There are a lot of niche
applications for our PoS devices such as lottery, test and measure equipments,
ticket printing, utility servi­­ces, textiles and banking,” said N
Sambamoorthy, GM-Business Products, Epson India Pvt Ltd.

Customers
prefer the smaller 40-column printer citing that it is space saving and offers
more durability and ease of use, he said. Air Deccan and the famous “laddoo”
counters at the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam and the Hyderabad Turf Club are
some of the customers who deploy Epson's PoS devices. “We have been
recording a steady CAGR of 355 for the last three years,” said Sambamoorthy.

Sambamoorthy expects a lot of traction for the products
from the road transport segment thanks to the increase in infrastructure
activities and toll collection counters on highways.  

To capitalize on the huge market opportunity, the company
has appointed a Chennai based SI-distributor Purple Infotech which has its
presence in eight locations. Epson's direct sales team is also focusing on
specific verticals such as transport, gaming, kiosks, retail and utilities.
Besides direct sales, the company is also trying to percolate into the verticals
through dealers.

“We have appointed 25 dealers who are box pushers and
also solution providers ho can provide our products and services support to cus­tomers.
We are also invo­lving 70 independent soft­ware vendors to develop retail and
non-retail end user applica­tions on top of PoS,” he said.

Next year, Epson plans to increase the dealer base from 25
to 60 who will be spread over 60 locations. “We want to spread not just in the
verticals mentioned but also cover mom and pop stores across India,” said
Sambamoorthy.

In the US and European markets, Epson's PoS busi­ness
constitutes around 30-35 percent of the revenues. Epson is the world leader in
the seg­ment and commands 60-65 percent market share in both India and
globally. The company's main com­petitors in India are HCL Star, Samsung,
TVSE and WeP.

Priya Padmanabhan Bangalore, March 8