Wipro ePeripherals heads East with dotmatrix printers

Kavitha Vivek in Bangalore

Wipro ePeripherals Ltd (WeP) is all set to tap China and Thailand
for its dotmatrix printers, both in terms of exporting its product to the markets as well as exploring the contract manufacturing/OEM routes to enter the region.

The company has so far been exporting to Germany and East Europe under the Seikosha brandname, as part the contract manufacturing with Seiko Precision and Triumph Adler (for Europe) respectively.
WeP will leverage its manufacturing facilities in Mysore and Hyderabad to ramp up on the manufacturing front to cater to the export requirements.

The facilities currently have a capacity to manufacture 100,000 units per annum, while the current production of printers is at 40,000 units.

Speaking to The Financial Express, Wipro ePeripheralsmanaging director and chief executive officer Ram Agarwal said the market overseas for dotmatrix was still a good business opportunity and the company had identified exports as a major thrust especially since the domestic market had been seeing flat growth.

“The dotmatrix is still a requirement for an office especially since it is mainly used to make multiple copies at cost-effective rates.
So countries like China and Thailand are currently good markets besides Europe where we are already exporting through our contract manufacturing arrangements,” Mr Agarwal said.

WeP is currently one of the leading players in the Indian dotmatrix printer market with a share of 38-40 per cent.

The printer market in China incidentally, is growing at 15 per cent and dotmatrix printers specifically account for 28 per cent of the country’s overall printer market.