UK printer sales up 31 per cent in Q1

Year on year sales of hardware in unit terms

Sales of printers in the UK rose 31 per cent year on year by volume in the quarter to March 2014, according to analyst figures from Context.

Zivile Brazdziunaite, imaging market analyst at Context, said the overall growth across EMEA in unit terms reached nine per cent year on year, and Western Europe alone 10 per cent.

"The majority of Western European countries registered positive year-on-year unit shipments growth in Q1 2014, driven mostly by multifunction laser and inkjet technology printers," Brazdziunaite said.

Ireland and Austria were the star performers in Western Europe, enjoying surges of 51 per cent and 37 per cent year-on-year, respectively. Next were the UK and Spain, in third and fourth place.

Spanish sales of printer hardware went up 28 per cent in unit terms from the year-ago quarter, and the UK 31 per cent.

The exceptions to growth in Western Europe during Q1 were Portugal, which saw sales slide six per cent, and Germany, which experienced a one-per-cent reduction in shipments in Q1.

MEA also saw an increase -- enjoying a 20 per cent boost to sales in the first quarter of 2014 from a year ago.

Shipments to central and eastern Europe, however, shrank four per cent year on year in Q1, compared to the prior year. Regional giant Russia saw a one per cent decline for the period, Context figures revealed.