Total sales of Office Equipment and Consumables amounted to 4.6 billion euros in the first quarter of the year, according to research group GfK.
The decline of -1.2% compared to the same period in 2009 was an improvement on -2.6% in the fourth quarter of 2009. Several markets in Western Europe (UK, IT, NL, SE) showed respectable growth. Whereas others suffered, Greece and Portugal for example encountered severe losses. However for the complete year 2010 GfK predicts a that it is very likely there will be a slight decrease for the overall Office Equipment and Consumables market.
In the first quarter of 2010 Consumables were doing quite well compared to many other Office products. Inkjet Cartridges lost, whereas laser toners increased. In some countries like Italy and Sweden the market was booming with more than two digit growth rates. As Consumables account for a big part of the overall turnover of the Office sector, this product group was also responsible for the remarkable "better-than-expected” score of total Office for the first quarter in 2010.
For Printing Devices the turnover continued to drop, but compared to previous quarters the negative development alleviated. Where 2009 showed a drop of almost 20% in value, in Q1-2010 it was only a -5% drop. Of course differing trends for different technologies continue.
Inkjet printing devices in general were performing well, especially in Benelux, the Nordics and the UK, where positive trends are visible. Stand-Alone Inkjet Printers on the other hand, showed continuous losses. A downward trend was also obvious for Small Photo Printers which lost more than one third in value terms. On the contrary, Inkjet MFD was still booming. In addition, the average prices for Inkjet MFD continued to increase thanks to the push of the W-Lan which was gaining more and more share in Inkjet MFD.
Laser Printing devices saw similar developments to Inkjet Printing devices in Q1-2010. Laser MFD was growing rapidly with a two digit growth rate, whereby laser MFD color was especially booming. At the same time there was a remarkable drop for Laser Printers Stand Alone products, what in the end means that the laser segment has lost almost one tenth in value.