INDIA:A BOOMING CARTRIDGE BUSINESS

[Anonymous]

Booming Cartridge Business Invites Struggle
The cartridge refilling and remanufacturing (CRR) industry is set for a revolution with the entry of global players, investment by Indian players in quality manufacturing, and also due to increase in customer awareness.In India, the CRR industry has failed to make a major dent so far due to the lack of quality standards and an organized industry. The Indian after-market cartridge segment is estimated to be around Rs 2,400 crore, and growing at 35 percent, of which nearly 35 percent is contributed by non-OEM supplies. Regrettably, a large chunk of this market is made up of counterfeits and low-quality refills. Quality CRR players have managed to capture only 5 percent of the overall market.I.C.Bansali, Purnima Enterprises, Bangalore comments, “We are getting good business from cartridge remanufacturing as this field has lucrative prospects. Also, it is cost saving and environment friendly. Earlier, there was 50-60% growth in this business. I must add, our main competitor is HP. And because of these big vendors we are feeling uncomfortable with this business.”The most unfortunate part of the Indian CRR industry is that it is not organized. The industry has been dominated by fly-by-night operators using spurious inks and spares which has created a bad reputation for the entire industry.To address this issue, serious players have now formed an industry association called ICRRA (Indian Cartridge Remanufactures and Recyclers Association) with a three-point agenda—to provide respectability and legitimacy to the business, lobby with the government and other influential industry bodies to promote the industry, and infuse quality standards to make it world-class. The entire emphasis of the association is on ensuring the adoption of the best-quality standards.

Comments Pankaj Nebhwani, Director, Evershine Digitech Pvt. Ltd., “This association is helping us a lot. Because of all big vendors entering in to the market we people are facing lots of problems such as prices are increasing, margins are going down. For our convenience ICRRA is doing their job as good as they can. They have set particular prices for buyers as well as sellers.”Even the government sector, one of the highest consumers of printing supplies, is turning receptive to the use of recycled cartridges. Many government departments use CRR but they are not sourced through the official channel. The government should make it mandatory for all its offices to allow the remanufactured products category in their tenders; this will further encourage the industry and provide a level-playing field.With the general opinion in favour of the CRR industry, it is all set for a boom. However, much will depend on how soon the industry can organize itself, build scale and create strong brands. All parameters suggest that by 2010 we will see the industry takes off in a big way.Do you see an end to the struggle aroused in the cartridge business?

[Author]

January 2, 2008 at 2:23 PM