Tiny drops Epson and hands Lexmark £10m contract

Tiny Computers has awarded a global, multimillion pound printer supply contract to Lexmark, displacing incumbent Epson.

Tiny Computers has awarded a global, multimillion pound printer supply contract to Lexmark, displacing incumbent Epson.

In a deal understood to be worth at least £10m, Lexmark's entire range of inkjet printers will be exclusively bundled with the retailer's PCs for sale worldwide.

Neil Stevens, marketing director at Tiny, told Computer Reseller News that the decision to switch to Lexmark after sourcing product from Epson for two years was based on Lexmark's ability to provide standard pricing worldwide.

"We had a good relationship with Epson, but we are now growing rapidly in the US and the Far East. Epson is a fairly inflexible Japanese company, and wouldn't give us single global pricing," he said.

Stevens said Tiny was hoping to drive a "McDonald's strategy", providing the same products at the same prices in its 240 stores around the world.

As well as its UK presence, the retailer has operations in the Far East and has recently stepped up its US activities.

Tiny currently has 30 stores, mainly on the west coast of the US, and plans to open another 70 by the end of the year.

Tony Hall, director of the consumer products division at Lexmark, said the deal would have a considerable impact on Lexmark's market share.

"We have a simple range of rugged printers offering 1,200 dpi across the whole product set. This deal is as big as with any leading US brand," he said.

A representative for Epson admitted that the loss of the contract was a blow to the company, but hit back by claiming that the vendor would not sacrifice its profit so that it could buy a bigger market share.

"Tiny has high expectations of its suppliers, but this does not always make commercial sense. We do not make cheap tat, and we will not make a loss on hardware so that we can make money on consumables," the representative said.