The HCP Market is Growing in Western Europe

According to research by IDC, the Western European printer and multifunction (MFP) market grew by 3.8% in unit terms in 2Q17 compared with the same period a year ago. There were positive sales performances in both inkjet and laser markets for units, but value for the laser market was actually down.

The overall market has been in continuous decline since 2Q15, and in 2Q17 the quarter increased by 173,000 units to give a market of almost 4.7 million devices. This stellar quarter is due to the surprising growth in consumer printing but is relatively in line with forecasts. Revenues, on the other hand, declined by 5.6%. Inkjet revenues, however, increased 1.5% while laser revenues fell by 6.9%.

Laser market shipments increased by 4.7% in 2Q17, but values decreased, indicating that prices are getting lower: a sharp contrast from the positive trend observed last year. ASPs for the laser market decreased by 11% in 2Q17.

Business inkjet shipments suffered another decline, a persisting negative trend for the past four quarters with shipments falling by 5.9% in 2Q17. MFP products declined by 5.1% in volume but grew by 9.7% in value. This is due to an increase in the average selling price of 73% for A3 MFPs; the A4 format represents 75.1% of business inkjet MFPs. Despite this, business inkjet MFPs accounted for 89.8% of business inkjet shipments in 2Q17, a 0.7% increase from last year.

Overall, MFP products accounted for 80.7% of all shipments in Western Europe in 2Q17, lower than the 81.4% in 2Q16. Laser and inkjet MFPs increased by 2.9%, while laser and inkjet printers showed an even stronger performance with a 7.9% increase, with shipments generally in line with IDC forecasts.

There was small growth in the business market in 2Q17; the market, comprising laser and business inkjet devices, increased by 1.6%, but the value decreased by 6%. The highest value growth was in 1-20ppm color devices and 151+ ppm mono devices, a positive trend that has been seen for more than a year now.

The German market followed the overall Western European positive trend with 10.4% growth after almost two years of negative decline. The business inkjet market performed above the Western European average, with a decrease of 4.9% compared with the regional average of 5.9%. The inkjet market grew by 7.2% while the laser market in Germany increased by 15.6%. This was due to the increase in volume in color laser devices, which grew by 23.6% in 2Q17. Multifunction devices increased by 7.1%, while printers grew by 20.7%. MFPs now represent 73.5% of all devices shipped in Germany this quarter, a decline from the 75.7% observed a year ago.

The French market performed below the Western European average, showing overall growth of 2.4% in 2Q17 over the same period last year. Inkjet increased by 1.7%, but laser declined by 4.4%. The inkjet consumer market increased by 1.8% and business inkjet grew by 1.2%, in contrast with the regional average that showed a 5.9% decline in this segment. Inkjet MFPs grew by 1.3% and laser MFPs increased by 9.9%.

The U.K. recorded a very strong performance this quarter after many quarters of negative results, with 11.9% growth, way above the regional average. This is due to a 13.8% increase in the inkjet market while the laser market enjoyed equally encouraging results with a 5.2% increase. Business inkjet performed better than the Western European average, with only a 3.3% decrease. The laser market overall increased, showing a 5.2% decrease in shipments but a 6.8% decline in value. The inkjet market grew, especially the A4 segment which increased by 14.5% this quarter, and we saw positive results in A4 laser with an 8.6% increase.