EU:40% OF INDUSTRY IS AFTER MARKET INK

[Anonymous]

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

[Author]

October 19, 2005 at 11:07 AM