RechargEast University was opened in Varna, Bulgaria, on August 10.

The traditional summer school organized by RechargEast Magazine started its course in Bulgarian on Aug. 10. The one-week course taught in Bulgarian gathered technical specialists from 9 Bulgarian companies dealing with remanufacturing of laser and inkjet cartridges and printer repair service.


The course focuses on the most popular models of MFPs and copiers. A separate part of the course is dedicated to cartridge remanufacturing. Here are some of the topics being discussed during this week in Varna, the venue of the course:

>> Toshiba 1550 and Canon iR series of copiers
>> Brother HL2030 printer and its service
>> Konica 7020 copiers
>> Xerox Work Centre 320/420 copiers
>> Hewlett Packard LaserJet P1005/1006 series printers
>> Repairs and service of Samsung SCX 4200/4300 MFPs
>> Lexmark E120, Samsung CLP 315/Xerox 6110, Hewlett Packard DeskJet D1400 series printers.

The course will end on Aug. 14. All the participants will be awarded a certificate issued by RechargEast Magazine.

Web: www.rce-university.com

European Union introduces new energy efficiency rules for PCs and printers

New energy efficiency standards come into force in Europe from July. These standards put copiers, printers and computers under a closer look. At the same time energy savings incurred by the application of the new ruling may save enough energy over 1 year to power Ireland for that same year.

Energy Star standards for computers and imaging equipment agreed earlier by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the European Commission have become law today, on July 1, in the EU.

According to the new energy star standards electronics manufacturers worldwide are required to make office equipment up to 14 percent more energy efficient than current models without having to make separate products for different standards in their two biggest markets, the U.S. and the EU.

The European Commission said better efficiency standards could save Europe up to 22 terawatt hours of electricity over four to six years.

If all imaging products sold in the U.S. met the new standards, U.S. consumers would save nearly $500 million a year in energy costs and prevent greenhouse gas emissions that would be released by more than 500,000 cars.

The EU is aiming to cut energy use by a fifth by 2020 as part of its ambitious goals to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent.

Source: Associated Press

Key words: EU, European Union, printers, copiers, energy efficiency, 2009

Fall in profit for Xerox

Xerox had the following results in the 4th quarter of 2008:

* Q4 net income $1 million; revenue falls 10%
* Sales of supplies and services down 8%
* Sales to high growth markets retreated

According to Reuters, Xerox barely eked out a profit in the fourth quarter, hurt by a dramatic decline in demand from Russia and other emerging markets, and $349 million in restructuring costs, sending shares down 9 percent.

The lingering sting of higher manufacturing costs, due to the strong Japanese yen, also caused the manufacturer of digital printers and provider of document management services to forecast a first-quarter profit that fell short of analysts' targets.

Xerox saw a startling 14 percent decline in revenue from high-growth regions, after these developing markets delivered 17 percent revenue growth through the first three quarters of 2008. Xerox cited soft currency exchange rates and the rapid weakening of Russian and eastern European economies.

"Where you really saw the weakness was in the developing markets," Cross said. "Some of these areas, whether its Brazil, Argentina or Russia, were really on fire. Multinational companies are going to have a challenge dealing with currency this quarter and going into 2009."

Xerox said fourth-quarter net income was $1 million, or nil per share. That is down from $382 million, or 41 cents a share, a year earlier.

In 2008, Xerox announced a restructuring plan, including about 3,000 job cuts, aimed at saving $200 million in 2009. In the fourth quarter, restructuring charges were 27 cents a share. Revenue fell 10 percent to $4.37 billion. Revenue from sales of supplies and services -- known as "post-sale" revenue -- fell 8 percent to $3.1 billion. Equipment sale revenue declined 15 percent to $1.3 billion, reflecting "weakened economic conditions around the world," Xerox said.

Source: Reuters

Key words: Xerox, profit, 2008, Russia

Lexmark to employ 200 in Budapest

The US-based printing and imaging company Lexmark is opening a regional service centre in Budapest. The centre will handle financial, marketing and customer care services for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said Lexmark International Technology Hungaria managing director Emmanuel Jan.

The centre will employ 50 staff at the start, but another 150 hires will be made in the following year and a half.

The opening of the Lexmark competence centre in Hungary was supported by the European Union and ITD Hungary, the Hungarian Investment and Trade Development agency.

Source: hungaria.org

RechargEast's opinion:
Lexmark's interest to the Hungarian capital is probably due to the fact that Lexmark already owns land in Tatabanya, Hungary, where the U.S. company planned to build a printer plant. Until now there is no evidence that the plant is on operation. Still, it seems Lexmark is building a hub for its operations in Eastern and Central Europe in Hungary.

Key words: Lexmark, Hungary, regional center, Eastern Europe

It is summer and, probably, it is time to go back to school!

RechargEast University summer courses in Bulgaria: we start off with Bulgarian

This summer RechargEast Magazine accomplished the idea of a summer school for professional and new techs willing to improve their skills in printer and copier maintenance. Having listened attentively to the opinion of numerous techs from Eastern Europe and CIS countries, complaining about certain lack of due experience in printer and copier maintenance, our magazine decided to fill this gap in knowledge out by organizing open specialized summer courses.

The summer school for technical specialists opened its first master-class on July 28 at 10 AM, when the first 14 students from Bulgarian remanufacturing companies took their seats in the class room.

What is this whole summer school about? – you may ask us.

First, it should be noted the main objective of the summer school is to offer a possibility of acquiring new knowledge and practical skills in the area of printer and copier maintenance as well as having a good rest on the Bulgarian picturesque seashore. All courses are held at the beautiful village St. Konstantin and Elena, which is located closely to Varna, the pearl of the Bulgarian Black Sea Riviera, famous for its beaches, attractions as well as its active summer social life.

The summer school includes the complete course for copier and printer maintenance and repairs, which is held in Bulgarian, Russian, Romanian and Czech languages. The first course in Bulgarian started on July 28. Besides its solely educational purpose, this course even attracted sponsors - ATS Bulgaria from Sofia and TNC from Plovdiv presented its advertising materials and technical information to all the students.

To the organizers’ surprise one of the Bulgarian students turned out to be a 20-year experienced tech from a local company. Despite his expertise and experience, his words to the question why the course had attracted him, were: “…Thank you for organizing this course, which not only allows to refresh your skills but also motivates to learn from colleagues and trainer". He also added the location and time for the course were rightly chosen, which is extremely important for studying and having a good rest.

Here are the words of Georgi Alexandrov, ATS Bulgaria, one of the sponsors of the Bulgarian course: “We are pleased to have been invited to sponsor the course. As a distributor of parts and printing devices we are interested in the growth of the industry, which can be only reached by professionalism of technical staff. We are always ready to help new and existing techs by providing supplies and information. I see a lot of new people at this course and I will be glad to meet them and start partnerships…”

Another pleasant fact of the course in Bulgarian was the activity of local remanufacturing companies in recruiting the students. Their offers were highly attractive and interesting.

Photos of the first day of the course in Bulgarian are presented below. The students will have 4 more days. Upon the successful completion of the course they will be awarded certificates, stating their practical and theoretical skills.

A similar course in Russian will be held between August 25-29, 2008, in St. Konstantin and Elena, Bulgaria.

All information about the course held in other languages is available at
www.rce-university.com



Key words: remanufacturing, courses, Eastern Europe, cartridges, printers, copiers, maintenance, toner, parts, inks

RechargEast Seminar in Kiev, Ukraine: April 22, 2008

RechargEast Magazine is organizing a new educational seminar for specialists in the imaging industry in Kiev, Ukraine.

The seminar will be a one-day event organized in the Hotel Lybid in the center of the Ukrainian capital on the day of April 22, 2008.

The program of the seminar is available here.

The seminar is dedicated solely to local remanufacturers and recyclers.

For all additional information contact our team at nikolai/a/rechargeast.com.

Russian OEM representatives about the local market of printing devices in 2007

In one of the January’08 issues the PCWeek published in Russian produced an interesting article about the market of printing equipment in the Russian Federation. In this short article PC Week published the opinions of the representatives of Russia-based OEM offices /Konica Minolta, Xerox Russia, HP, Epson/. Here I will give the main points put forth in the article.

…The actual growth of shipment of printing devices into the country grew by 15% as compared with 2006. The MFU segment grew twofold (in volume) and it is even higher than expected. This growth tempo allows to state the Russian printing market is close to saturation, but it still has potential for further growth in 2008-2009.

So what were the main trends in the copying and printing business in 2007? All experts say the MFUs are leaders in sales, color mono functional devices are also on the rise. The segment of A4 all-in-ones experienced the most significant growth rates as A4 is still the leading format in the country, said the representative of Xerox. Laser MFUs costing less 500 USD are in strong demand due to a drop in retail price for this type of products. These products (under USD500 color laser MFUs) have become popular due to the drop of the price under the psychological 500 USD barrier.

Epson’s representative mentioned that inkjet is already considered by businesses as a good alternative to laser printing. However, people from Xerox think inkjet printing shrinks and belongs merely to the realm of home printing.

What do all experts think about 2008 perspectives?

To sum it up, the interviewed experts thinks that:

1) the situation on the local market of printing and copying equipment will not change abruptly;
2) cost-per-copy principle will come upfront as more efficient and beneficial; this will make the market even more competitive;
3) some printing-based spheres will continue going digital (like university, educational establishments, etc.), this will increase demand for low-end color desk and small group devices;
4) MFU segment will continue to grow;
5) Logistics will be improved, which will result in better retailer-supplier processes.

The original article is available here.