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At Kyocera’s 2022 dealer meeting, the potential reality of retiring the Copystar brand and converting those dealers to Kyocera outfits was broached. It was not surprising to hear that 70% of Copystar dealers agreed with this strategy (not for nothing, I thought it would have been higher). Well, Kyocera has made it official, as Copystar will no longer exist beyond Q2 2023.
Konica Minolta did likewise with Muratec at the beginning of 2022. The former made the acquisition in 2017 and, sticking to its five-year plan, put the latter on permanent vacation.
It’s clear as glass that the days of also-sold-as brands is dwindling. Dealers buying dealers is a common occurrence, almost no different than brushing your teeth. There has not been a vendor-level acquisition in the print industry to rival the likes of the HP-Samsung deal in some time, though Ricoh’s purchase of Fujitsu’s scanner business last year was big news indeed.
We have all grown used to consolidation in the print industry. We all expect it to continue. Having options is always a good thing, but how many options do there really need to be? The bloat can be overwhelming. One thing we have definitely learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is that the world wants—demands?—simplicity, regardless if it concerns ease of use or, yes, decision-making around which option is best for you, your family, or your company.
Consolidation is, in some ways, a course-correction. The pool of potential customers in the print industry might be smaller today than it was a decade ago, that cannot be denied, but can we not say that said pool is stronger? Better? More focused? Thanks to new areas of exploration such as managed IT (including cybersecurity, that beast of a topic), the diversification of product and service portfolios for office- and home-related technology has helped offset the reduced number of vendors compared to 2012.
But enough words already. Time for the main event!
Infographic designed by Mark DiMattei, Editorial Manager at Keypoint Intelligence.
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