Issue #0526/2 - While prices on most laser and inkjet printer cartridges rise by a few percent as a result of currency fluctuations, strategic increases are made on a few products.
Following price rises on consumables from Hewlett-Packard of around 3.5% and from Lexmark of around 1.6% in July, inevitable price adjustments are now occurring in the European market for printer consumables this month as the US Dollar gains a little strength against the Euro (May to July) and other currencies. Unfortunately, due to the lead times experienced when making pricing decisions from US based products in Europe, we now see the US Dollar already weakening again even before the price adjustments came into effect.
As the US currency strengthens, European prices rise. For those prices set from a European base in the Euro zone (such as Hewlett-Packard), price changes are then also susceptible to more local currency fluctuations.
For instance, although Euro Zone consumables prices from Hewlett-Packard are increased this month by an average of 6% for inkjet and laser products, the UK experiences an average increase of over 9%.
Using Germany as an example in the Euro zone, maximum increases are 9% on inkjet products and 17% on laser products whereas, in the UK, maximum price increases are as high as 15% on inkjet products and 21% on laser products. In both countries all laser products are affected to one degree or another and 95% of inkjet products are affected.
There are two key areas, however, where individual products or ranges break away from the norm.
Primarily, it is toner cartridges for the very old LaserJet printers that attract abnormally high increases. These are the LaserJet II, III, 4 and 5 ranges (including cartridges shared with the LaserJet 8000 and Mopier ranges), where reducing volumes of consumables sales have pushed prices up by around 20%. Significant price increases are noted on these products across the region.
Also affected more than most are several photo inkjet cartridges and, in particular, twin-packs for the No.57 tricolour cartridge. Here we see great diversity in the handling of price changes.
Whereas in the UK the price of the No.57 twin pack has been increased by 15% and in Germany the increase is 9%, in South Africa, where pricing is governed by the US Dollar, the price is reduced by more than 8% and the No.56, which experiences average or below average increases in the UK and Germany, has had its price cut by 9%.
Lexmark, for its part, has increased prices on 87% of its consumables products by an average of a little over 5%.
Almost all mono and colour laser cartridges are affected to the tune of 6% on average. Maximum increases from Lexmark, however, reach as high as 14% on mono products and 10% on colour products. While it is the 6K colour cartridges for the C752, C760 laser printers that attract the high increase on
the colour side, like Hewlett-Packard it is the products for some of the very old legacy mono laser printers (ex IBM 3900 and 3835) that attract the highest rises on the mono side.
New Xerox price lists are released in the middle of the month, so no changes are know at this stage. As Xerox did not make any changes in July and August, we can reckon that there may well be some changes in the September price list.
However, as Xerox tends to take a longer term view and hold its pricing to more stable levels than either Hewlett-Packard or Lexmark, price rises are not guaranteed.
It should be noted that the currency related price changes for Hewlett-Packard affect only the lucrative consumables sector and not the hardware sector.
Selling hardware is much too important to the overall business plan to risk increasing prices in all but the most extreme of circumstances.
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