UK leads charge for rebounding print market

UK overtakes France to become western Europe's second-biggest hardcopy market

The UK was the star performer as the western European print market enjoyed strong second quarter.

Shipments of printers and MFPs across the region in Q2 2014 rose five per cent on the corresponding period last year to 4.92 million. This equates to an increase of 234,000 units.

MFPs accounted for 78 per cent of units shipped - the same percentage as in the year's opening quarter. MFP shipments rose 7.8 per cent annually in Q2, while traditional printers declined 3.6 per cent. Shipments of colour machines - both laser and inkjet - increased for both MFPs and printers, while monochrome devices were down across the board.

The UK - which overtook France during the quarter to become the region's second-biggest market, behind Germany - emerged as western Europe's foremost inkjet market in Q2, with strong growth in consumer shipments.

The overall printer and MFP sector in this country grew 22.9 per cent year on year in 2014, compared with 4.2 per cent growth in Germany, and a French market that stayed flat. Colour devices comprised 46 per cent of all laser shipments, a higher percentage than in either France of the Germany."

Phil Sargeant, programme director of IDC's western European imaging hardware devices and document solutions group, said: "Confidence has clearly now returned to the western European printing and imaging markets, with 2Q14 being the fifth quarter in a row that has shown year-on-year shipment increases. The growth was initially being driven by business markets but consumer markets have shown gains in some countries, meaning that market confidence is also filtering through to home users."