The award of the Cape Town Unicity tender for printer cartridges earlier this month to remanufacturer Ecowise will send ripples through the printer industry, which is characterised by consumables outstripping printer cost over the life of the hardware, and hostility over quality issues.
Freddie Huysamen, marketing director for Ecowise, one of the more successful local makers of remanufactured cartridges (laser, inkjet and even dotmatrix printer consumables), says the contract is for an initial 12 months, with an option to extend as needed. The contract value could amount to as much as R20 million.
"The Unicity has between 4 000 and 4 500 printers, and obviously the audit will tell us the extent of their need for consumables, as well as the type of cartridges needed," says Huysamen. "This is a big victory, but not necessarily an unprecedented one. We, for one, have only blue-chip clients, ones that needed to be converted from buying expensive original equipment manufacturer [OEM] products." Ecowise clients include Old Mutual, Ackermans and Caltex.
He says many consumers (typically using inkjet technology) and corporate customers (most often using laser) have experienced quality problems with remanufactured consumables, but puts this down to the low barriers of entry into the market, the lack of local standards and the consequent proliferation of fly-by-nights.
"You can either just refill a cartridge, refurbish it or remanufacture a totally new compatible," says Huysamen. "To explain the process, I would say we collect the empty cartridges, look at the state of components and replace them with quality compatible components as needed." This approach means remanufacturing can go on as long as the casing holds, and not just once or twice, as OEMs have claimed, he says.
Huysamen says the OEM market is already taking a dent from generic competition. "They perceive us to be the enemy, but the fact is you cannot force-feed compatibles to someone who`s been bitten once. We sell both," he says, adding that a "sizeable" percentage of the contract is generic.
Ecowise keeps up standards, Huysamen claims, by following American industry association imperatives on a voluntary basis. Its suppliers are Oasis and Coates. The company has 50 employees, and the Unicity contract has necessitated employing seven more. More than three-quarters of staff are black.
Share