AN industry player in the development and manufacturing of printing, communication, and digital imaging peripherals is planning to hire more people to help carry out its plans to expand its corporate client base in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Brother International Philippines Corp. director and general manager Toshiaki Isayama said the company has witnessed “remarkable growth” every year in sales and market share since it put up a branch in Cebu two years ago and even after its incorporation in November 2000.
Isayama reported that the company is second in the country in terms of market share for multi-function products, which features up to six functions—printing, faxing, scanning, copying, PC faxing, and PhotoCapture Centre—in a single unit.
Brother, Isayama said, also has 20 percent market share in the country for printer products.
Brother International Philippines assistant general manager Glenn Hocson said that there is “promising growth” in Cebu and the company is looking to expand its corporate offerings to customers in the Visayas and Mindanao that belong to the top 100 companies in the country and have branches or offices in Cebu.
He cited San Miguel Corp. and Pepsi Cola.
Despite the rising prices of goods in the country, executive chairman for Brother International (New Zealand) Ltd. Graham Walshe assured that the company’s products are priced competitively and even “significantly cheaper” than those of its rivals.
Consumer experience
“We look at the cost of ownership and also on the consumer experience of having a Brother product,” said Hocson.
Walshe said the company is surprised that its target consumers in the country—homes, government and corporate offices, and enterprises—have embraced not only Brother’s product offerings but also its comprehensive platform called “balanced deployment.”
In a presentation, Brother described balanced deployment as a corporate methodology that entails “putting print technology within reach to increase employee productivity” through organized work traffic and “to reduce production costs.”
Brother started promoting the method about five years ago, after learning about it from IDC, an international provider of market intelligence, advisory services and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets.
“We were expecting New Zealand and Australia to immediately embrace (balanced deployment). But here, there is a strong change in the management systems and Filipinos want a taste of new technology,” he said in a news conference.
While he declined to give figures, he admitted that the methodology has helped increase the sales of the company.
Brother celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. (NRC)
