Lexmark celebrates 10 years of innovation and growth

Ten years ago, Lexmark International, Inc, was a fledgling start-up that made headlines as the first-ever spin-off of famed business icon, International Business Machines (IBM). Today the company generates headlines that reflect its position as a top-tier provider of complete, managed print services, hardware and supplies to the world`s leading corporations, small and medium businesses and individual consumers.

Lexmark`s success has been derived from a fairly simple formula: the company`s solid business model and exclusive focus on printing solutions have helped Lexmark cultivate "customers for life." The company`s unique path to market and shortened development cycles - both are the result of Lexmark`s closeness to its customers and its printer-only focus - differentiate the brand from the competition and have helped Lexmark serve in a thought-leadership role in the printing category for the past 10 years.

As a result of this decade of success, Lexmark is clearly on its way toward displacing other manufacturers as the default choice for printer purchases. Despite being the youngest competitor in the field, Lexmark has surpassed many household technology names to quickly become the world`s second-largest printer provider. The company enters its second decade with strong momentum: it has more than doubled its global market share since 1998, is the only major competitor to increase its market share each of the past three years and is the only one of the four largest printer companies that today has a larger worldwide market share than three years ago.

Lexmark`s operational successes have translated to impressive financial performance. The company reported revenue in fiscal 2000 of more than $3.8 billion, and has experienced 12 percent compounded annual revenue growth since going public in 1995. (Shares of the company are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "LXK.") During that period, earnings per share (before unusual items) grew at a compounded annual rate of 32.3 percent.

"Lexmark`s innovative heritage, award-winning products, and cutting-edge solutions and services have propelled us from virtual anonymity to the top tier of category players in just 10 short years," said Paul J. Curlander, Lexmark`s chairman and chief executive officer, who has been with the company since its first day. "Along with our customers we`ve savoured many successes since 1991, but looking at long-term printing trends and the opportunities for our pioneering technology to capitalise on them, I`m confident in saying that the best is yet to come."

Led by numerous groundbreaking technological breakthroughs, many industry firsts highlight the company`s first ten years, including:

• Printing`s first true 1,200 Image Quality laser printers,

• The industry`s first inkjet capable of printing 1,200 X 1,200 dots per inch,

• The world`s first inkjet printer to sell for under $100,

• Digital photography`s first standalone photoprinter, and

• The industry`s first sub-$200 colour inkjet scanner/printer/copier.

Continuing in that tradition, Lexmark last week introduced at the CeBIT technology conference in Hannover, Germany, two new colour products that herald a new era of business printing. The Lexmark C720 colour laser printer and the Lexmark J110 business-class inkjet, featuring the company`s new LiquidLaser technology, will accelerate the growth of colour output in the workplace by overcoming the affordability and accessibility barriers of colour printing.