Laser MFP shipments continue to grow across Western Europe

LONDON - March 13, 2015 - PRLog -- Laser Multi-Function-Printers (MFPs) continued to register positive year-on-year performance with an increase of +2% across EMEA in Q4 2014, according to data published by CONTEXT, the European IT market tracking company. The growth was driven by a +13% increase in Western Europe.

However, Printer Hardware unit shipments across EMEA registered a decline of -3% year-on-year for Q4 2014 compared to the last quarter of 2013. This was driven by a slight fall, -1%, in unit shipments of Inkjet MFPs, which account for more than half of all Printer Hardware devices shipped to EMEA, and continued sell-in volume decline of Single-Function Printers (SFPs).

For Western Europe, Printer Hardware shipments dropped by -1% year-on-year, driven by negative performance in France and the U.K., despite Germany recording a growth of +8% for the quarter. Unit shipments in France shrunk by -3% year-on-year, while the U.K. registered a decline of -9% for the quarter.

“The Middle East and Africa mirrored overall EMEA performance by recording a decline of -3% year-on-year, driven by the negative Printer Hardware performance of UAE and Turkey”, said Zivile Brazdziunaite, Imaging Market Analyst at CONTEXT. “Saudi Arabia and Israel recorded double-digit growth due to increased unit shipments of multi-function devices.”

As in the previous quarter, Central and Eastern Europe registered a -9% year-on-year decline; a result of continuing poor performance in Russia, as the political situation continues to deteriorate, and this contributed to the overall performance of the region. However, the Czech Republic and Romania recorded growth in unit shipments of +5% and +3% respectively, once again driven by the strong performance of Laser MFPs.

Country break-down: Q4 2014 Imaging Shipments performance

Austria          -26%

Belgium          -15%

Denmark          -23%

Finland          4%

France          -3%

Germany          8%

Greece          15%

Iceland          2%

Ireland          12%

Italy          3%

Luxembourg          -73%

Netherlands          11%

Norway          -25%

Portugal          -19%

Spain          3%

Sweden          13%

Switzerland          -10%

UK          -9%

About CONTEXT
Headquartered in London with over 200 staff in 15 countries, CONTEXT specialises in tracking technology sales and pricing across the globe. Supported by the largest Distribution Channel Sales Database in the world, CONTEXT tracks Channel sales in most countries across EMEA where we are the official data partners with all members of the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC). CONTEXT reports and services enable our customers to assess their business operations in the light of actual sell out figures, and make business critical decisions based on hard data. Follow us on Twitter: @contextworld.com or visit our website: www.contextworld.com