Fujifilm is celebrating a year since it launched its print devices in the UK and, while the past 12 months have been successful, it is just the beginning for the company as it widens it product range and adds new partners to help get the devices out to customers.
It has now been a year since Fujifilm announced its entry into the UK and various other European printer markets with the launch of its Apeos range. For a new brand – to these shores at least – to join such a mature market created a lot of interest in the sector, with many looking on keenly to see how the newcomer fared.
But it has been a successful year for Fujifilm, one that has seen promising sales, backed up by more product launches and an active approach to onboarding reseller partners to help get the message out to customers.
For instance, Fujifilm recently launched three new mono printers – you can read more about those on p14 – to further strengthen the company’s product portfolio.
“We’ve got a very strong portfolio of devices now,” says Matthew Wrighton, Fujifilm’s head of device technology and partner development in Europe. “Our range goes across production and office, making it a strong proposition that is resonating very well with partners and customers.”
Partner channel is key
But while Fujifilm has a strong product portfolio, it has also been developing the partner network it needs to get them to the customers in the past year.
“For Fujifilm, the partner channel has been a key route to market,” says Matthew. “It’s been frenetic growth in the past year.”
This growth has involved the onboarding of reseller partners around the country. “We’ve got a good number of partners on board now,” he adds. “Some have come from other vendors, others are expanding their portfolio to include Fujifilm.”
Matthew adds that while Fujifilm are looking to onboard more partners, the company is looking for those that fit certain criteria. “We always look at coverage,” he explains. “Which segments of the market do they have strength in? Which geographic areas do they cover? Of course, we also want to make sure that they have got the right competence from a selling and a service basis. We’re conscious of making sure that when we bring partners on board, we give them the strategic ability to go at a market that they’re strong in.”
But bringing a partner on board is a necessarily quite lengthy process. “It is a journey that we go on with them,” says Matthew. “The educational process to embed Fujifilm in their business, including such things as selling methodology, can take some months, but we get to a point where they’re excited to come on board with Fujifilm and we’re excited to have them as a partner.
“It takes time, and while we might want it to be a quicker process, we also want to ensure we are meeting the partner’s needs and expectations too. It is a balance.”
Matthew adds that the partner acquisition process is going well and is where it needs to be for Fujifilm to continue to grow in the coming months and years.
Getting partners on board has been crucial to help raise awareness of Fujifilm the brand and what the range of printers can offer to customers. “It’s making sure that customers understand what Fujifilm’s values are as a company, by helping our partners to make sure that that message is getting out there.”
This has also been achieved with things like Fujifilm’s ‘Discover the Difference’ campaign, which has included videos and marketing materials, as well as having a large presence at industry events such as drupa last year. “drupa was a big moment from a production print perspective, it made a lot of impact for us,” says Matthew.
Innovation at heart
Getting brand awareness is important. Fujifilm is established in other parts of the world – especially the Asia-Pacific region – but not so much in the UK.
However, for Fujifilm to really make an impact in the UK and European markets, the printers must be of high quality and show innovation. “At the heart of Fujifilm has always been innovation,” says Matthew. “And this continues with the devices we have launched.”
He points to recent product launches, such as the Revoria EC2100S and SC285S presses, which have a speciality toner station in addition to the CMYK toners, which means they can print five colours in one pass.
“We are really pushing the boundaries of what we can do,” says Matthew. “You see that in everything Fujifilm does, and I think that is creating a lot of excitement in the market.”
This is translating into sales too. “We are starting to see a lot more traction in the office space because of the way the portfolio has evolved in recent months,” says Matthew.
Breadth of range
As mentioned, the range was added to recently with the launch of three monochrome printers. This launch was to give added breadth to the Fujifilm range, which customers seek.
“Some markets have heavy preference for monochrome, and others have less so,” says Matthew. “If you take the UK market, colour is much more dominant. But it is important to make sure that when we’re giving partners the opportunity to meet customer needs, especially when they’re doing a balanced deployment, there’s always this discussion about A3, A4, mono versus colour. It’s making sure that we have a portfolio available to partners that can cater to all customer requirements. The mono printers build on the value propositions we already have in the range.
“The UK is a mature market, but there are still lots of opportunities out there for partners. With the latest launches we are making sure that we can allow our partners to compete and deliver what the customer needs.
“We are continually working on trying to strengthen those value propositions. We want to make sure that we give our partners and customers choice and flexibility in the range of products we have.”
Of course, it isn’t just about the printers, the combined service and after-sales package is also hugely important and Fujifilm is continually working to ensure that partners can provide everything that customers need on an ongoing basis, Matthew adds.
Sustainability is key
One significant customer demand is for sustainability. This has been a key consideration in the development of Fujifilm’s printer range, Matthew adds. Indeed, Fujifilm has had sustainability as a core value and has advocated for recycling and reducing waste for more than 30 years. In 1995, the company established a comprehensive recycling policy that it has adhered to ever since, which is based on the principle of ‘zero waste’.
“Sustainability is an enormous part of our value proposition, whether it is in the make up of the product or how we can support the customer in being more sustainable in the use of the equipment,” says Mattthew.
To this end, Fujifilm opened a Circular Manufacturing Centre in the Netherlands last year, which aims to promote resource circulation in Europe. It began with collecting and remanufacturing toner cartridges and will add to its range of services in due course. “That’s been a big part of our proposition in order to make sure that we are having that circular element related to the cartridges,” says Matthew.
“There’s no doubt sustainability is one of the strongest parts of our value proposition, and we’re continuing to try and develop that further and take that forward.”
AI impact
Artificial intelligence (AI) is also having more of an impact on Fujifilm’s printers. For instance, the Revoria Press PC1120 has AI technology integrated into it to help with things like image correction, colour management and process automation.
Matthew says that AI is integral to the development process and will be further embedded into Fujifilm devices in the future.
In addition, there is greater harnessing of data that the devices are producing, which can be used to make them more efficient, such as with predicting maintenance on devices so partners can service them before a breakdown occurs, for instance, Mattthew adds.
“We are looking at how we can serve the data up to allow MPS providers to be more consultative with customers and flex their contracts,” he says.
Trends
Matthew, who has been with Fujifilm for 15 months, but has been involved in the print sector for 25 years, believes the print channel is in a healthy place currently, with several trends informing the market.
One trend is the return to the office for employees. While some may be returning to the office part- or full-time, there is a definite shift for more employees to come back into the office on a more regular basis.
“There are more people going back to the office now, whether that is full-time or working more flexibly. While it’s never going to go all the way back to how it was before COVID, I think we will see more people continue to return, which will put pressures put back on the print environment in terms of utilisation of the devices, for example.”
This means that employers may look to invest in more print devices to cope with the added demand or could seek to renew their fleet having put it off for some time, Matthew adds.
Meanwhile, the digitisation of many businesses of all sizes continues, but there is still very much a role for print, he says. “Likewise in the production space, then we’re seeing significant use and volumes within that space because of what we can do with new technologies, whether that’s been opening up the capabilities with the additional colours and the like.
“I think whatever space you’re looking in, there’s great optimism to be had and the print channel is looking relatively healthy.”
Future plans
With more devices recently launched, Matthew is confident about the rest of the year for Fujifilm. “A big part of the next nine months is, of course, continuing to expand across Europe,” he says. “We’ve accelerated the number of partners we have quite quickly. We’ve got our next partner conference in May, in Madrid, where we will see the significant growth in the partner network over the past year.
“Also, the number of partners wanting to come on board with Fujifilm is growing all the time. But, as I said, we do it in the right way because we want to make sure that those partners that come on board, we give them the chances to have the right market penetration. That’s a big focus.
“Of course, we are continually innovating, so no doubt Fujifilm will continue to release technology that will change and impact all these markets that we’re in. Partners and customers should watch this space, as there is much more to come from Fujifilm.”
