Epson Meets a Growing Demand for Its IJ Printers

Seiko Epson Corp. plans to improve the production capacity of its plant in Batangas, the Philippines, to meet a growing demand for its flagship ink-jet printers. At the 20th anniversary celebration of Epson’s Micro Piezo technology,

Toshimitsu Tanaka, Country Manager at Epson Philippines Corp. said, “I believe EPPI (Epson Precision Philippines, Inc., a manufacturing unit of Seiko Epson) will have a 10-20% capacity increase. At this moment, annual production capacity of our plant in Batangas is 4.25 million for printers.”   EPPI currently operates a factory in Lipa City, Batangas with over 10,000 workers, Mr. Tanaka said, adding that in excess of 90% of Epson’s locally produced L-series models are exported to Japan and Europe.

Mr. Tanaka further explained: “Market response is good for our products. Printer demand, in particular, is still growing worldwide and the ink tank will drive business growth for us.”

Epson produced its first Micro Piezo ink-jet printer, the Epson Stylus 800, in 1993. Koichi Edo, Seiko Epson’s Managing Director for Southeast Asia, commented that “Epson has waited 20 years for our Micro Piezo technology to mature. Today, its superior reliability, energy efficiency and high ink compatibility gives Epson unique advantages and growth opportunities in the fields of business document printing, industrial printing, and our ability to create special products like our ink tank system printers for emerging markets.”

Seiko Epson recently launched 3 new printer models that use the Micro Piezo technology: the L355, L550, and M-Series printers. It currently sells 5 color models: the L110, L210, L300, L350, and L800 printers.