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SOYPRINT TO EXPAND CARTRIDGE LINE
PRC to Expand SoyPrint Cartridge Line but Loses Key Distributor
PRC’s SoyPrint cartridges use oil derived from soy in place of the petroleum used in conventional toner. Image source: Photos.com.
Recently we came across two news items related to bio-toner, one encouraging and one less so. First, the good news: it appears that aftermarket cartridges using bio-toner will now be available for a wider variety of products. Yesterday, The Recycler reported that Print Recovery Concepts (PRC), maker of the SoyPrint line of monochrome toner cartridges will be expanding the line to include SKUs for Brother, Dell, Lexmark, and Samsung devices. Currently, PRC’s SoyPrint line only includes cartridges for HP and Canon machines. In other news, the La Crosse Tribune reported on May 7 that LaserMonks is no longer doing business. LaserMonks was the first national dealer to sell SoyPrint cartridges.
More SoyPrint SKUs to Come
PRC has had plans to expand the SoyPrint line beyond cartridges for HP/Canon monochrome laser engines for some time. LaserMonks’ website had indicated that cartridges for IBM and Lexmark products would be available in the fall of 2009. Obviously, that date has come and gone. According to the May 9 article in The Recycler, PRC faced some “R&D delays” in bringing its line of Lexmark bio-toner to market. The Recycler reports that PRC currently offers cartridges for 30 HP models and that test cartridges for Brother, Dell, Lexmark, and Samsung printers will be available in June, with a full rollout expected this summer. According to The Recycler article, PRC is also “pursuing color bio-toner,” although no dates were given for possible product introductions.
Offering bio-toner for more than just HP/Canon machines would be a significant competitive advantage. One of PRC’s main competitors in the bio-toner market is Future Graphics, a division of longtime toner maker Mitsubishi Kagaku Imaging Corporation. Future Graphics markets the BioBlack line of toner. According to the BioBlack website, the only cartridge SKUs to use this toner are for HP devices. Similarly, Print-Rite currently uses its Bio-ECO toner in only three different HP SKUs available on the UTec website.
As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so we will see within the next few month if PRC’s R&D team is able to meet the latest target dates it has set for rolling out cartridges for Brother, Dell, Lexmark, and Samsung monochrome laser printers and MFPs.
LaserMonks Goes Kaput
In other news, PRC has lost a distributor for its SoyPrint cartridges with the closing of LaserMonks. LaserMonks was founded in 2001 by monks from the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank in Wisconsin, and, according to a 2009 New York Times article profiling the business, brought in $4.5 million in revenue in 2008. Now, after a decade selling non-OEM cartridges, LaserMonks has shut down. According to the LaCrosse Tribune article, which quoted LaserMonks’ attorney Kevin Roop, LaserMonks’ financial performance had deteriorated due to “the downturn in the economy over the last several years and increased competition in online sales of imaging supplies.” Mr. Roop told the Wisconsin paper that LaserMonks’ remaining assets and liabilities are being examined and assets will be sold and applied toward liabilities.
As we wrote in an article on bio-toner (see “Bio-Toner Buzz: It’s Not Easy Being Green“), LaserMonks was the first dealer to pick up SoyPrint cartridges. Now, LaserMonks’ two websites (LaserMonks.com and LaserMonksGreen.com) are no longer operational, although the defunct LaserMonks.com site directs customers to http://www.wholetoner.com, which offers some of the SoyPrint cartridges (see here) that LaserMonks formerly carried.
PRC does have other online resellers. We found the firm’s SoyPrint cartridges at Amazon, Egp Business Solutions,Ink4Less.com, and R-Tech Computers, among others. But LaserMonks was a well-known and, at one time, popular name among the long and ever-growing roster of online distributors. We expect that PRC is looking for new distributors to compensate for the loss of LaserMonks.
Personally, we are saddened to learn of LaserMonks’ demise. Amid the rising tide of relatively undifferentiated online cartridge distributors, LaserMonks stood out because of its interesting backstory and its promise to devote a percentage of profits to charitable organizations (10 percent, according to the New York Times article). It seems, however, now that cartridges are ubiquitous online and are sold through popular channels such as Amazon, LaserMonks was no longer bringing in profits, either for the monastery or for charities.
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