Office automation company, Kyocera Mita SA has formed a strategic partnership with local IT distributor, Corporate Business Solutions (CBS), as part of its aggressive plans to triple sales revenue by 2016.
The Kyocera subsidiary's partnership with CBS means it will provide direct access and support to its local customers. CBS recently changed its identity from UTAX SA, following the Kyocera Mita partnership. Kyocera Mita SA (KMSA) and UTAX SA never had a formal business trading relationship prior to this partnership.
With the new venture, CBS now has access to Kyocera Mita's locally-developed and supported products, such as KYOcentral (enterprise fleet management) and SmartPrint (user document account and security). CBS also forms part of Kyocera Mita's partnership agreements with local suppliers, such as PaperTrail and Equitrac.
According to the companies, CBS customers directly benefit from the KMSA local knowledge and infrastructure to implement these solutions in SA. CBS customers now have better local warranties, parts and spares availability, as well as access to new products.
Wayne Holborn, GM of Kyocera Mita SA, explains the partnership comes at a time of aggressive expansion for Kyocera, in terms of both the channel and infrastructure.
Holborn says: “What is important is that we partner with strategic business partners to address the needs of the channel as well as our customers. With our Direct Touch strategy, we identify key businesses that we have interest partnering with, and we engage with them and make sure the end-user gets the best of what we offer. This initiative is key to our recent success.”
According to Holborn, the partnership gives CBS access to a greater portfolio of products from the Kyocera brand; and Kyocera Mita leverages CBS' distributor experience to key business accounts. He says Kyocera Mita SA and CBS are still two independent companies, as there is no direct equity.
CBS CEO Gary Trant points out that the partnership gives the distributor access to Kyocera's product portfolio, warehousing and logistics infrastructure and managed document solutions methodologies.
According to InfoSource, for the period January to June 2011, Kyocera Mita SA significantly grew its market share across the multifunctional colour and laser printer segments for business use categories.
The brand, for the period of January to June 2011, versus the same period in 2010, has seen a growth of 83% in sales, which has given Kyocera an additional 4.2% market share, totalling 11.8% of total market share in this segment.
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