Bigger trend in Europe
In
Europe, the after-market sector is about 40 percent of the entire
printer-ink industry, said Dave Iuppa, vice president of sales and
marketing for Caboodle Cartridges Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif., company
that has opened 34 locations since it started franchising a year ago.
Along
with Cartridge World and Caboodle Cartridge, two companies are
expanding eastward from the West Coast ’Äì’Äì Rapid Refill Ink
International Corp. from Springfield, Ore., and Island Ink-Jet Systems
Inc. in Courtenay, British Columbia.
A number of large businesses
and organizations already contract with after-market companies to get
ink at a 30 percent to 50 percent discount.
National Toner Recycling
and Supply, founded in the mid-1970s, has customers that include the
U.S. Air Force, Newsday, “probably a good percentage of the
universities throughout the country … a lot of school districts, a
lot of government agencies, large corporations,” said Donald Richner,
president and co-owner of the company.
National Toner also sells to
individuals, he said. In additiion, the company offers its products to
retail stores. Richner would not talk about the size of the company or
even how many employees he has, but he said, “We’ve been growing very
steadily lately.”
Richner’s company sticks to toner cartridges
rather than inkjet. National Toner makes cartridges for some original
equipment manufacturers and sells compatable cartridges under its own
brand name, which he says are not just as good as the name brands, but
better.
Richner says he doesn’t worry about increased competition from the new franchises.
“I
see that they’re going to be having problems just paying the rent if
they’re in a high-traffic area,” he said. “You’ve got to sell an awful
lot of $10 ink cartridges to meet the rent. We’re operating out of a
factory. We’re selling direct without the whole retail cost.” s