Brother gives new lease of life to printer market

Leasing scheme will enable reseller to improve client ownership, printer vendor claims

Phil Jones (left): Brother is keen to take away the hassle of printing with its Print Smart scheme.

Printer manufacturer Brother has launched a new leasing programme in an attempt to increase margins for its resellers and help them extend relationships with their clients.

The Print Smart programme allows businesses to lease their printers in an all-inclusive package through Brother’s affiliated resellers.

“For users, it is about hassle-free printing. For resellers, the objective is client ownership,” said Phil Jones, Brother’s sales and marketing director. “We want to take the complications out of both of their lives.”

Under the scheme, users make a quarterly payment for the latest colour laser multi-function printer.
Included in the deal are all the consumables they need to meet their monthly print volumes. The process of consumable replacement would be automated where possible, with networked machines emailing resellers when paper or toner is low.

“We want to eliminate end-user downtime,” said Jones. “And the reseller is kept in the loop for
consumables business.”

James Kight, managing director of Brother partner Printerland, said: “Xerox is the only other vendor to offer this and we have been waiting for Brother to do it. It saves customers money and ties us in with their consumables, which is a big part of our business.”

Jones said training was one of the most attractive parts of the deal for end users, which he claimed have always struggled to get their printers set up to do what they want.