Samsung Wins Corporate orders for its Laser Printers October 31, 2007 10:24 by John Sollars

Samsung Electronics, which sees its printer business as its prime growth engine in the long run, has taken meaningful steps in that direction by striking a deal with larger corporate clients in Europe to supply 40,000 high-speed laser printers.

``We won a contract to supply a cumulative 40,000 tailored high-speed printers to government agencies and financial institutions in Europe and Southeast Asia,'' a company spokesperson said on Monday.

Samsung will supply 14,000 medium-speed ML-3051ND laser printer units to Federal Pension Fund in Russia, while 12,000 will go to the Venice regional government in Italy. Samsung said 5,000 ML-3472NDK medium-speed printers will be go to France's job agency, while 2,000 units and 1,000 units are destined for the Thailand policy agency and Malaysian policy agency, respectively.

``We have also agreed to offer a combined color printer, scanner and fax machine unit to financial institutions in Southeast Asian countries including Singapore and Malaysia,'' the official added.

Samsung's printer business has been growing 38 to 40 percent annually over the past few years, compared with an industry average of 3 to 4 percent, according to the company.

The printer business, however, still accounts for a meager 3 percent of the company's total sales. Samsung hopes the printer business will rise 25 percent to reach around $2.5 billion in revenue by the end of the year from $2 billion last year.

Samsung is still sticking with its marketing strategy in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as these countries take up some 5 percent of the company's revenue. More recently, however, the company revised its target upward to 10 percent.

After announcing rather upbeat third-quarter earnings in mid-October, Chu Woo-sik, head of Samsung Electronics' investor relations team, told reporters that Samsung will be ideally positioned for maximum strength and profit from new growth engines such as the printer business.