Ricoh India: aggressive on channel expansion

In its bid to capture the laser printer market in India, Ricoh, one of the leading imaging solutions company, is going to aggressively expand its channel base in the country. The company will be appointing over 800 printer partners and system integrators in this financial year.

On this occasion, Ricoh has also launched three new models of laser printers and A4 MFPs, namely SP 100, SP 100SU, and SP 100SF. While SP 100 is a single function laser printer, SP 100SU functions as a printer, scanner and copier and SP 100SF is an A4 MFP that prints, scans, copies and faxes. These 3 models of the printers are supported by Ricoh's Genuine Toner Refill Program, which the company claims that it brings down the TCO by 70%.

"These new series of laser printers are targeted at entry level customers and SME segment. And since they constitutes 80% of the total laser printer market, we are confident that our channel partners will be able to rapidly expand their business opportunities and increase their customer base," said Tetsuya Takano, MD and CEO, Ricoh India.

Takano added, "Currently, we have a base of 200 reseller partners dealing in the existing portfolio of our products. And this is for the first time that we are unveiling these newly launched products for them. This means that together we will have 1000 partners in the country taking our products to the Indian market. And through these partners, we are targeting to ship 100,000 units in the country this year."

As far as the company's channel ecosystem in concerned, it is currently working with 6 regional distributors in the country, including Cyberstar, Modi Infosol, and Megahertz amongst others. And as the company is planning to expand its footprint in 12 more cities this year and in order to meet the volumes, it will add more regional distributors in its kitty.

Takano further added, "Our market research revealed that today more than 90 percent of the customers are re-filling their cartridges and were using non standard consumables to achieve lower cost of ownership. So, as part of Ricoh's Refill Programs and in order to address their needs, we provide Ricoh Genuine Toners that certainly helps in securing our product quality. We really want our customers to avoid remanufactured cartridges. And this is for the first time in India that customers will get a branded re-filling at a price of Rs.650 only."

In addition, Ricoh is enhancing its managed print services (MPS) business in the Indian market as well. Till date, the company has about 20 contracts for MPS.

V Balakrishnan, chief marketing officer, Ricoh India, asserted, "Managed services is all about understanding the customers' requirements and enhancing their value. It's about the optimum utilization of the resources. Our print and document services management program is complemented by our consultation, and proven project and change management methodologies."