Canon rejigs European exec team

Printing vendor announces new European and UK management after growing EMEA market share

After swelling its share of the EMEA printer, copier and MFP market, vendor Canon has announced a reshuffle of its UK and European senior management deck.

Rainer Fuehres has been appointed as head of Canon Consumer Imaging (CCI) for Europe, moving from his previous role heading the vendor's European emerging markets arm. Fuehres, who has been with Canon for more than 16 years, is replaced by Shuichi Shionoya, who has spent 28 years with the company in European and Japanese roles.

Canon's European chief executive Ryoichi Bamba said: "In the current challenging business environment, I am reassured to know that the leadership of the Canon Europe Consumer Imaging and Emerging Markets businesses is in very experienced hands.”

The vendor has also appointed to Lee Bonniface to the role of CCI country director for the UK and Ireland. Reporting directly to Fuehres, Bonniface replaces Alessandro Stanzani, who has been promoted to deputy head of consumer imaging for Canon Europe. Fuehres said: "Lee has been an invaluable member of the UK and Ireland CCI team over the past few years and he was the natural choice to take on the role."

Canon received more good news yesterday as it grew its share of the EMEA printer, copier and MFP market to 15.8 per cent during 2008. Figures from analyst Gartner put Canon in second spot, though HP still dominates with a 43 per cent share.

HP's share dipped more than a point from 2007 after the vendor suffered a 10.7 per cent decline in shipments. Total shipments for the year dipped 8.4 per cent to 48.2 million.

Canon, Epson, Brother and Samsung all gained market share at the expense of HP and the market's smaller players. Samsung, in fifth place, swelled market share by 1.3 points to 5.9 per cent after shipments rose by 16.3 per cent. Gartner's senior research analyst Tosh Prabhakar foresaw a bleak 2009 for the printing channel.

“The print market will continue to feel the pressure during the next 12 months as the economic uncertainty worsens," he said. "A worst case scenario will be that both unit shipments and end user spending will be lower than in 2008 and that recovery should not be expected to start until early 2010.”