Sales of printer hardware across Western Europe is down by 4 percent in Q4 2017 according to new data published by CONTEXT.
CONTEXT says that distributors across Western Europe (WE) saw the ongoing decline in sales of business inkjets soften in Q4 2017 with revenues flat, which was an improvement on previous quarters, according to the data published by CONTEXT, the IT market analysis company.
The data shows year-on-year decline in distributor sales stood at minus 4 percent for both the quarter and the year as a whole. Revenues remained constant due to a 3 percent price increase: Active Server Pages (ASP) reached €119 ($146) due to changes in the product mix with vendors introducing more expensive business inkjets that feature advances in technology.
According to CONTEXT, HP continues to lead with a market share of 56 percent, followed by Epson, which had a share of 31 percent in Q4 2017, then Brother and Canon at 7 percent and 4 percent respectively. All vendors saw quarterly sales decline, except for Canon, whose sales increased by 14 percent year-on-year on a small base.
“Sales of business inkjets grew in most major Western European countries”, said Zivile Brazdziunaite, Imaging Market Analyst at CONTEXT. “However, in Germany, which is the largest market in the region, there was a strong decline in Q4 2017 with sales falling by 12 percent year-on-year.”
The analysis continued, that distributor sales of business inkjets increased by 15 percent in France and returned into growth in Spain, Italy and the UK. The positive performance in these countries is mainly due to higher sales of A3 business inkjets.
Although A3 printers account for less than 20 percent of all business inkjets sold by WE distributors, sales continue to increase and grew by 3 percent year-on-year in Q4 2017. According to CONTEXT the main driver of this HP, which performed well in retail and SMB channels and saw its share of the segment increase to 38 percent, with distribution sales of both low-end and high-end A3 business inkjets increasing. At the high end, where Epson dominates, HP’s growth was mainly due to sales of its new PageWide models, which started selling in Q3 2017. Brother holds a share of 35 percent in the segment, followed by Epson with 20 percent.
