Reprinted in the blog from www.rechargermag.com:
Author: Craig Berosh · Recharger Magazine · November 1, 2007.
1) You are often a speaker at industry events. Why have you decided to take this leadership role? What is your main message when presenting in front of industry members?
There are a couple of reasons behind my decision to take on this leadership role. The key one is that I really love this industry in which I have spent 25 years of my life as an active participant. I believe the sharing of my personal experience and viewpoints could be helpful to our peers, which could eventually be beneficial to the long-term development of this industry. As I have repeatedly mentioned, the aftermarket is never a competitive rival to the OEMs. To a certain extent, we are their complement, as we help to promote the popularity of printers. In reality, however, some of our peers may have been over-aggressive, causing some OEMs to feel threatened and overreact. From what I’ve read, it is all about your attitude. That’s why I feel the need to make use of every opportunity I can to promote the proper attitude of living with the OEMs, so that we can all work together to promote growth for the entire industry.
2) You recently proposed a “1 Percent Initiative.” What is the proposal? What objectives do you hope to accomplish?
We are suggesting an industry foundation for which all remanufacturers shall contribute 0.1 percent of their annual turnover. With the funding, the foundation will work to promote the remanufacturing industry as an environmentally friendly agent. The objectives of the foundation are to: 1) Inform consumers of the benefits of remanufactured consumables; 2) Research and publish the findings of environmentally friendly printers; 3) Cooperate with government agencies to implement environmental initiatives that focus on digital printing output; and 4) Participate in setting up ISO standards and certifications for the remanufacturing industry. Through this foundation, I believe we can contribute a part in protecting our environment.
3) There seems to be increased litigation from the OEMs in recent years targeting ink cartridges, especially cartridges being imported into the U.S. and Germany. What has been the overall effect on companies such Print-Rite?
Print-Rite is one of the pioneers, first realizing the growing importance of intellectual property rights dated back to about a decade ago when we started the development of our own patented design products. To date, we have registered about 700 patents in PRC and 80 more worldwide on our product line. To be frank, we do not see much pressure on our own product line. Despite recent lawsuits on other’s ink cartridges, we are confident that our 86T series of ink cartridge does not infringe any of the OEM patents. We see this as our added value to the customer, which ultimately causes a price difference between our 86T with other compatible cartridges. However, given the rising legal concerns in the market, we see a big potential for our 86T series.
4) What should all importers and potential customers of cartridges from a Chinese source know about the industry there?
On one hand, you may find a factory of 10 people doing simple refilling without any specialized quality checking. In the same neighborhood, there may be a factory with a couple of thousand people working under international quality assurance standards.
Print-Rite does not have major operations in the Asia market outside of the PRC. As such, we do not really have much insider news to share. As far as we know, many of the players in the region are now remanufacturing in China. Of course, more would be buying remanufactured products from China except that some countries like Vietnam and India have a competitive edge on labor costs in the short term or a protective import duty. In the PRC, the total number of factories is huge, with the range of the factory sizes just as big. On one hand, you may find a factory of 10 people doing simple refilling without any specialized quality checking. In the same neighborhood, there may be a factory with a couple of thousand people working under international quality assurance standards. This certainly explains the price differences and the deviating quality. To further complicate this, the products we are working on nowadays are a lot more complex, with numerous components and sources — toners, OPC drums, rollers, blades, etc. A slightly different mix would create differences in product quality as well as price. In my opinion, anyone who is considering buying from China needs to consider both product quality and price. There is no free lunch in this world. When you decide to go to China and pay a price for a "remanufactured" cartridge that is just a portion of its empties cost, you should be aware of the type of product and quality you should expect. It is up to each individual to decide whether or not to take on the associated risks that comes along with buying solely on price.
Source: http://www.rechargermag.com/articles/52754/
No comments:
Post a Comment