The Next Big Thing in Ink & Toner

There's a revolution brewing in the world of inkjets and it's all about speed.

 HP has begun introducing its next generation of colour inkjet printers and they have the feel of a colour laser. In fact if put side-by-side, you would have a hard time discerning which printer is a laser and which one is the inkjet.

The HP Officejet Pro X range of single and multi-function devices are an affordable and compact inkjet. They print at speeds that rival colour lasers. According to HP even when printing at the lower ‘General Office’ quality level, it can reach a speed of 70 pages per minute (ppm).

In a tradtional inkjet, the page must be stepped through the printer, a little bit at a time while small heads traverse it, spraying ink onto the page. HP’s new range of printers use stationary heads which cover the width of the page, coating the page with ink as it moves without pausing underneath. This is similar to "Memjet’s" revolutionary waterfall heads. Take a look at what a Memjet printer can do - it's ground breaking technology and far ahead of what we think of as an inkjet printer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Z7RqRH3QQ

 

HP has employed its own in-house technology to produce fast, high speed, colour inkjet printers and they are doing so at a price that is affordable to the consumer. HP is aiming to bring to the market an affordable inkjet printer that is high speed and can compete toe-to-toe with the colour Laser competition. These printers have fewer moving parts than an equivalent laser and they are lighter - plus they are comparable in size to a medium size laser printer. They generate little heat and need little ventilation. The printers themselves are controlled by a smartphone-sized colour touchscreen display with a few touch-sensitive buttons, making it easy to use.

For those of us interested in the "supply" end of this business, I have good news for you. Genuine Supply Source has begun carrying some cartridges for these printers - thereby providing the dealer and the consumer an alternative consumable  source for these new-age printers. Currently GSS is stocking Fuzion high speed ink cartridges for the HP970XL and the HP980, with more to come.

So keep an eye out for these printers in the marketplace and as always, provide your customers with alternative, cost-effective supplies from Genuine Supply Source.

 

 

 

 

Annual COPA Golf Tournament - The Social Event of the Season

Well another June and another just completed Canadian Office Product Association (COPA) Golf tournament. 156 Golfers, representing approximately 50 companies participated at the prestigious Lion Head Golf and Country Club in Brampton, Ontario.

This is always a fun day. A chance to renew long-standing friendships and introduce yourself to new colleagues. I always look forward to this day. While I am not much of a Golfer and play infrequently - this, in my opinion, is the best day of the year for our industry.

My 4-some consisted of Dave MacMillan of Genuine Supply Source, Dan Cookney of Guild Stationers and Kirk Austen of Frid & Russell (L to R). While we were far behind the winning 4-some, Kirk did manage to win the "closest to the pin" competition with a beauty shot that landed about a foot from the hole at #15 on the Masters course.

 

 

My highlight? Well this looks better than the result.........another one for the squirrels.

I have always thought that COPA should consider holding similar tournaments in other parts of Canada -  perhaps Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Halifax would be good choices?

If you missed the tourney - you really should consider joining this event for next year. Get in touch with COPA and ask them how you can participate?

Speaking of COPA - is your firm a member? COPA diligently serves our industry with a number of excellent programs that can help save your company money while providing you with valuable industry data and networking opportunities. Here are just a few of the services that they provide:

• COPA Monthly White Papers: Business Reports on the state of the industry
• COPA Product Guide: Sourcing Information for dealers and vendors
• Exclusive Corporate Savings
• Courier programs
• Group Health and Dental plans
• Cell Phone plans
• LTL Freight programs
• POS Solutions
• Human Resource solutions
• Fleet & Gas cards
• Conference & Webinar services
• EDI solutions
• Health & Safety programs
• Employee Savings programs
• Esso Gas card
• CAA Discounts
• Hotel and Travel Accommodation programs
• COPA Awards program - recognizing OP industry leaders
• COPA Scholarship program - providing industry bursaries for tomorrow's leaders
• Networking Program
• COPA Breakfast Speaker program
• Total Office Trade show
• Annual Stars Gala & Silent Auction
• Annual Golf Tournament

Myself? I have always taken advantage of the COPA networking opportunities. They have been a great venue for me to expand my industry knowledge and contact base. I have never left an event without a new idea or a new contact. If you don't participate in these events, you really are letting opportunities pass you by.

For more info on COPA - contact Sam Moncada at smoncada@copa.ca

Time to talk Ink and Toner

Ink and Toner is a business that I have been involved in for over 25 years. There is lots of available information and misinformation regarding this topic. Has been for years - so what do you need to know to run an effective Ink and Toner program?

#1 priority is knowing what your customer needs. Your customer needs a cartridge and they need it now (or probably yesterday). Priority for every dealer is to have a trained staff that can easily figure out what cartridge their customer needs, quickly and efficiently. For a great, easy to use, cross reference resource - go to the Genuine Supply Source webstore and apply today for an access account. GSS will give you login credentials and a password to their user-friendly cartridge search engine:

http://store.genuinesupply.ca/landing.asp?autopage=/Default.asp

The default for most dealers is the OEM - or original equipment cartridge. What could be simpler than just getting the exact same cartridge for the printer that the user is using? Hassle free with a good probability that it will work and that you won't have any problems. Most sales people don't like problems - so they steer their customers in this direction.
Just one problem - are you making any money with this solution? Most dealers are in the business of turning a profit - not just shipping boxes. Have you checked your average GP on your sale of OEM cartridges? What does that look like?

What would your bottom line look like if you could guide your customer in another direction? Say a compatible or remanufactured solution, such as Fuzion brand cartridges from Genuine Supply Source? A product where the price difference is as much as 40% less in price - allowing you to save your customer $$$ but earn you more profits. Dollars to Donuts - I think your bottom line would look a whole lot better is my guess.

 What types of cartridges are available for your customer:

So why don't more dealers go in this direction? Fear and lack of knowledge!

Fear - that somehow they will lose customers if they sell their customer a product that does not work or breaks the customers equipment. Truth is that the success rate on alternative cartridges is very high and the chances of a cartridge damaging a printer is very slim. In my 25 years in the cartridge business, and after tens of millions of dollars in sales - I can count on one hand the number of complaints that I had regarding a cartridge damaging a printer. In most cases, if there is a problem, just replace the cartridge. As for Fuzion cartridges - GSS has a 100% guaranteed customer satisfaction for every cartridge.

Lack of knowledge - many sales people and customer service staff are not properly trained in the cartridge business and thus fall back on the "default" OEM every time. After 25 years, I have a number of strategies that can help you overcome these barriers to increased, profitable cartridge sales.

So what does the market for cartridges look like and who are the major players:

 Worldwide, the imaging supply market is worth $8 billion dollars with the alternative market making up 23% of those sales. What % of your sales are divided between OEM and Alternative brands?

If you are not getting market share on both the OEM and the Alternative cartridge market - then you are leaving $$$ on the table. And after all, we are all in business to turn a profit.

For more information on Genuine Supply Source, Fuzion cartridges and the Ink & Toner market, feel free to contact John Fullerton Sales - I am happy to assist you in implementing an Ink & Toner program that will help you make money - not just ship boxes.

The Passing of Steve Chester

As most are now aware, Ko-Rec-Type suffered a blow on October 25th with the death of our President - Steve Chester (pictured on far right). I have been with Steve and Ko-Rec-Type for 18 years, and he has been an integral part of my life over that time span. He will be missed by myself, the KRT staff, this industry and of course by his family. Steve, was to say the least - a character - and a very smart businessman, who first brought the KRT Imaging Supply business to the Canadian Office Supply industry in 1973.

Last Thursday, November the 2nd, Steve was to be presented with a lifetime achievement award from COPA (the Canadian Office Product Association). Steve's wife and business partner, Danielle Chester, accepted this honour posthumously. Steve had prepared an acceptance speech for that event. I delivered this speech and would like to take this opportunity to share it with those who were not in attendance:

"The events of Friday, May 18, 1973 turned out to be the most significant of my life.

A few months earlier, my uncle Vic Barouh, at the recommendation of our VP of Engineering, invested in a small, financially strapped company located in a suburb of Montreal that was trying to produce and sell carbon coated paper for use in business forms. We weren't interested in the carbon paper but in the coating equipment used to produce the carbon paper. We believed the coating equipment could be converted to coat correctable film for the production of correctable film ribbons for IBM Correcting Selectric typewriters.

So my uncle Vic asked me to go Montreal just for the day and check out what was going on. When I arrived I was greeted by a young lady working part time in the office doing just about everything. She impressed me so much that by the end of the day I had decided to marry her.

So I went back to Brooklyn and told my uncle that if he was going to keep that little company in LaSalle and if he needed someone to run it, that I would do it. He thought I was absolutely out of my mind. He said everybody up there was either French or an Eskimo and that it snowed 10 months out of the year. And even if I could find someone who spoke English they would never understand me anyway because even people in New Jersey can't understand people from Brooklyn. But, if I wanted to go, I could go.

So I did.
So I married that girl.
So I'm here.

I leave you with this:

Never be afraid to try something new.

Remember: Amateurs built the Ark.
professionals built the Titanic."


Steve will be missed by all.

John