The Hindu Business Line : Printer sales nearly flat in fiscal ’09

New Delhi, July 31 With subdued consumer sentiments in the second half dampening IT product consumption, printer sales in India rose a marginal one per cent in FY09.

According to data on IT peripheral consumption released by industry body MAIT (Manufacturers Association for Information Technology), the UPS consumption declined about 6 per cent, dragged down by the fall in desktop sales, particularly in households.

Desktop sales in that category declined 18 per cent in the fiscal and the consumption of UPS is closely co-related to desktop buying.

“The total printer sales between FY2009 — dot-matrix, ink-jet and laser-jet printers combined — were 1.61 million units, a growth of one per cent over the previous year, ” MAIT said.

The UPS sales stood at 1.51 million units. In the case of networking products, sales of Network Interface Cards (NICs) grew 3 per cent while that of modems and hubs declined 44 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively.

Reviving sentiments

With business sentiments reviving now, printer consumption this fiscal is expected to cross 1.74 million units, an 8 per cent growth. Sales of UPS, however, may be flat.

“While the consumption in the first half of the fiscal was satisfactory, less than expected offtake in the second half pulled down the overall growth into the negative quadrant,” the MAIT Executive Director, Mr Vinnie Mehta, said.

Dot-matrix and laser-jet printer consumption grew 5 per cent and 7 per cent respectively during the just ended fiscal. Ink-jet printer sales, however, declined by 4 per cent.

Smaller towns and cities outside of the top eight metros drove the buying, clocking a growth rate of 6 per cent, and accounting for three-fourths of the overall printer consumption.

Sales of printers in the top four and the next four cities declined 9 nine per cent and 31 per cent respectively in 2008-09.

The small and medium businesses accounted for over three-fourths of the total printer sales within the ‘establishment’ segment. Large establishments, however, recorded negative growth of 38 per cent in 2008-09.

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