Singapore, 6 June 2007 - Epson, a world leader in digital imaging, has selected Singapore for its first Epson Solution Centre in the region. Including Singapore, seven such Centres are slated to open in major cities across Southeast Asia and South Asia. In addition to the Epson Solution Centre, the company is committing S$100 million over three years in the region to accelerate its business products market share. Already serving the broadest spectrum of business sectors (banking & finance, retail & hospitality, entertainment, food & beverage, public sector, MNCs, education, manufacturing, pre-press proofing and professional photo market), the company is further targeting its IT peripherals and solutions to the burgeoning small-medium size enterprises (SMEs) and small-office-home-office (SOHOs) markets as well.
Officiating at the opening, Mr Kiyofumi Koike, Chief Operating Officer, Business Products Division, Seiko Epson Corporation (SEC), said "Over the next three to four years, SEC aims to significantly increase revenue contribution of the business products segment. The region here represents a major market for business products and is a significant contributor of revenue for SEC. Given the high-paced growth of emerging markets across the region, we expect this sector to grow by over 10 per cent in FY 2007/08."
In terms of global market share, Epson continues to dominate as the world leader in the SIDM* (Serial Impact Dot Matrix) sector with over 51 per cent market share worldwide. For data projectors, Epson clinched the number one position for the sixth year running**. In this display device area, Epson's share of market rose from 14.2 per cent from the preceding year to the current 16 per cent - nearly twice the market share of the nearest competitor.
In Asia, Mr Koike remarked that Epson's presence and position remains strong and currently owns 19 per cent*** market share of the inkjet printer market as well. Moving forward, Epson has put in place plans to aggressively increase its share in the business and corporate segments and the new Epson Solution Centre represents one such initiative. He also reiterated that 2007 marks Epson Singapore's 25th anniversary and renewed the company's commitment to Singapore. Mr Koike said Singapore was specifically selected to be the first in the South East Asia and South Asia region to open the Epson Solution Centre due to its importance for SEC.
"Strategically, Singapore is extremely important in its role as Epson's regional headquarters. Apart from our manufacturing facilities, our global research & development resources for scanners are also located here. We have committed over S$0.5 billion in the region over the past five years and will invest another S$100 million in the business products area over the next three years. This year, we also aim to increase our sales and customer service staff strength by almost 200 per cent to better support our customers in the respective regional markets."
For FY 2006/7, Epson Singapore achieved over S$700 million in sales revenue. Of this, business products contributed 33 per cent. According to Epson Singapore's Managing Director, Mr Hisashi Shimizu, the varying stages of maturity in the regional markets offer tremendous opportunities for Epson's diverse range of business products as there is typically an Epson model to fit the variety of customers' needs.
Mr Shimizu also commented that specific to Singapore, the optimistic outlook is in line with the exponential growth in the financial services and education sectors as well as Singapore's focus on developing the creative arts, infocomm, new media and the overall "remaking of Singapore into a global city" plan.
The Epson Solution Centre is open from Monday to Friday, from 9am to 7pm; and Saturday, from 9am to 1pm.
Notes:
* Based on market share figures by IDC
** Based on market share figures by Decision Tree Consulting
*** Based on market share figures by IDC
Epson and all associated marks are trademarks of Seiko Epson Corporation.
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