The company said it takes this as an opportunity to look back on its strategic choices and investments and to unveil its new projects.
ARMOR was founded in 1922 to meet the growing need for carbon paper. The business quickly took on an industrial dimension and a factory was inaugurated on the Chantenay site (Nantes) in 1956.
ARMOR first developed inked ribbons for typewriters and then fax rolls. In 1983, the company was the first in Europe to adopt Thermal Transfer technology. In 1990, a new factory was built at La Chevrolière, which has since more than doubled in size. The 1990s also saw the first investments in the remanufactured laser cartridge business and the development and launch of the first compatible inkjet cartridges.
ARMOR Print Solutions recently extended to include wide format, franking machines and, in 2020, copiers. “With +200% growth since its launch, our ambition for the copier range is very strong: we are aiming for a number one position in Europe” said Gerwald van der Gijp, Managing Director of ARMOR Print Solutions.
With its OWA brand, ARMOR Print Solutions is now one of the European leaders in remanufactured consumables, with constant growth in turnover over the last five years and a forecast of double-digit growth over 2022. The company’s position is also evident in its dense network of resellers and distributors across Europe, including more than a thousand in France. “ARMOR Print Solutions has demonstrated exceptional strength and longevity in the printing industry. With our remanufactured print consumables, we cover 95% of the OEM cartridge references and 98% of the printer references on the market. To achieve this, we rely on our century-old industrial know-how in ink formulation and on a community of several hundred employees in Europe and Morocco, whose industrial site was expanded by 1,500 m2 last year,” explained Gerwald van der Gijp.
ARMOR Print Solutions also launched its Dyalog brand in 2020 entering the MPS market and with its Armor Industrial Ink offering, ARMOR Print Solutions is now extending its industrial ink expertise to the development and production of semi-industrial inks.
The next few months are busy for ARMOR Print Solutions, the company said. Firstly, its R&D teams for inkjet consumables for professionals (large format, label printing, etc.) will be strengthened with recruitment planned.
ARMOR Print Solutions is also strengthening its position in the DACH region by expanding its sales teams and offering its customers a 24-to-72-hour delivery solution. At the same time, the Moroccan industrial site in Bir Jdid is continuing to expand to support growth, with an additional 4,500 m2 by the end of June 2022.
Finally, in the coming months, ARMOR Print Solutions will consolidate its range of reconditioned printers.
“The environmentally oriented trends in the market offer good opportunities for ARMOR Print Solutions: the AGEC law, which imposes a minimum of 20% of remanufactured products in public procurement in France, the European Green Deal, which aims to impose product reuse targets on manufacturers, and the growing awareness of the challenges of the circular economy,” concluded Gerwald van der Gijp.
