The print channel is starting to wake up as the pandemic and its lockdowns wind down according to market watcher Context.
The print channel was hammered as offices closed or skeleton-staffed, now things appear to have been picking up.
According to market watcher Context, revenue sales through the distribution of business printers across Europe were higher than consumer device sales last month.
Laser single function (SFP) printers were driving those sales, with the performance of inkjet hindered slightly by the shortages that have swashed around that market in recent months. Price increases have also bled into entry-level business and consumer printer prices, and that has also seen revenue improvements year on year.
SMEs have been buying mid-to high-level products to support office reopening, which has also had a positive impact on comparisons with last year’s revenue figures.
Context Antonio Talia, head of business analysts at Context said that while volume sales for both business and consumer printers were lower over this period compared to a year ago, business volumes fell at a slower rate.
“Revenues increased thanks to a different product mix, featuring more high-end devices, and price increases for entry-level and mid-range devices. The latter trend was influenced by a shortage of consumer printers in the same price range – especially laser SFPs – driving up the average selling price and overall revenue performance.”
There are also indications that the UK and Spain are the leading countries with upward-trending revenues in mid-January, which bodes well for the year ahead. Context said it is reasonable to assume that revenue in both countries will continue to trend above the 2021 average for the first half of 2022, boosted by business sales.
Context found further evidence of that with the average number of pages printed falling by three per cent year on year in January. That was driven by the negative performance of toners, which fell by 3.3 percent compared with 2021. Other consumables, ink cartridges and tanks, failed to offset that decline.
Context tracked the growing popularity of ink tanks, which continued to gain share over inkjet cartridges. That will be seen as a positive development by many in the industry because it protects the channel from losing revenues to vendors offering direct ink replacement services.
