The Recycler Issue 331

Covid-19: Where 

to from here? 

Wherever you are in the world, this coronavirus 

pandemic is impacting on our personal and 

business lives, here is our take on where we 

are and what we think might be evolving in the 

coming months for the office print market. 

Starts page 4 

June 2020 

Issue 331 | £10 

ETIRA: Non-OEM new build 

cartridges not so safe? 

ETIRA tests show that a selection of 

imported non-OEM new build cartridges 

sourced in Europe were tested by the 

German LGA Institute and 100% failed. 

Page 12 

COVID-19: Have mindsets changed 

towards circular IT? 

CEO of specialist refurbishing distributor 

Flex IT, says lockdown measures have woken 

many firms up to the value of 

repurposed hardware as demand 

soars across Europe. 

Page 16 

Ninestar reviews achievements in 2019 

In one of its latest infographics, Ninestar 

highlights 2019 full year results and 

achievements for the group. 

Page 21 

123inkt scores another win 

The online retailer who has been battling it 

out in the Netherlands courts with Samsung 

and HP, has announced their 

latest wins against the OEMs. 

Page 24

IN THIS ISSUE 

2 Issue 331 June 2020

EDITORIAL 

Survival of the fittest? 

The arrow of time never points 

backwards is the right phrase as we 

assess where we are and what might be 

happening as we go forward. There are 

lots of questions about when we will get 

back to normal, and the short answer to 

that is, nobody expects that we will. 

The headline numbers depending on 

where you are in the market are that sales 

have declined between 20% and 82%. 

Combine that with the perfect storm 

of demand falling, customers who are 

unable to pay to terms, suppliers wanting 

payment with order, and banks that are 

unwilling to assist. And even if the banks 

can help, you have to be sure you can 

repay them. 

Some businesses will be forced to close 

as they run out of resources, and some 

business owners will reflect and decide 

for many reasons the time is now to exit. 

How will office printing evolve after the 

crisis? If we knew the answer to that… 

But digital is going to be more significant 

than ever as 82% of consumers now shop 

online. Sustainability is another trend 

that has been accelerated by the crisis. 

Collaboration and data will also feature 

in the survivors' guide. Look for more on 

this in the next issue. 

Is it a case of survival of the fittest, or 

maybe it is a time of opportunity, who 

knows? Read our feature on starting on 

page 4 to see what we have discovered. 

Is it a case of survival of the fittest, or maybe 

it is a time of opportunity, who knows? 

In the week leading up to writing this 

editorial, the busiest page on our website 

was the always popular recruitment page. 

Of more concern or interest was the 

fact that 140 people signed up for our 

recruitment newsletter in the same week. 

It is a challenging time indeed. 

Last month we published our ‘One 

Planet’ feature where we explored the 

OEMs desire for a voluntary agreement 

(VA) with the EU and the aftermarket. 

Javier Martinez, ETIRA's President, 

reached out to make the point: "While the 

first VA agreement achieved very little for 

▲ Stefanie Unland Editor 

& Publisher, The Recycler 

the consumer or the environment, two 

further drafts have already been rejected 

for extremely low circular ambition. 

" It looks increasingly likely 

that legislation, similar to that in the 

motor industry, will be needed to create 

an open market for consumers and to 

protect the environment. 

Is the Pelikan bio-based reusable 

cartridge the game-changer that can take 

market share from the OEM? Time will 

tell, but interestingly, consumer trends 

are changing, and 60% of consumers that 

would have been brand loyal ten years 

ago, are more likely to switch brands for 

price and better brand connection. 

Look at how Lidl and Aldi have disrupted 

the supermarket space in the last ten 

years. The technology itself could be 

worth a fortune as companies switch 

to bio-based plastics. 

I know it is only May and Remanexpo 

/ Paperworld is eight months away but 

have a read about the new concept from 

Paperworld for Remanexpo on page 

11. Three zones, Reuse, Distributor 

and Print Plus all give a focused and 

individual identity to the various 

market segments and is a good time 

and opportunity to "kickstart" the 

office imaging economy. ■ 

Issue 331 

June 2020 

3

FEATURE 

Covid-19: Where to from here? 

Wherever you are in the world, this coronavirus pandemic is impacting on our personal and 

business lives. Over the last few weeks we have been fielding Skype calls and emails from around 

the world and across the sector, OEMs, remanufacturers, resellers, distribution and the supply 

channels. The conversations are all about the pandemic and its impact on the office print market. 

The headline number is that depending on where you are in the market, sales have declined 

between 20% and 82%, so here is our take on where we are and what we think might be evolving 

in the coming months for the office print market. 

The arrow of time never points backwards 

is a good phrase as we assess where we are 

and what might be happening as we go 

forward. There are lots of questions about 

when we will get back to normal and the 

short answer to that is, nobody expects 

that we will. 

In other sectors British Airways are looking 

to let 12,000 employees. The first wave 

of several thousand Boeing layoffs will 

start in June. The International Labour 

Organisation (ILO) reports that 81% of the 

global workforce of 3.3 billion has been 

impacted in some way by the coronavirus. 

A continued sharp decline in working 

hours globally due to the COVID-19 

outbreak means that 1.6 billion 

workers in the informal economy 

– that is nearly half of the global 

workforce – stand in immediate danger 

of having their livelihoods destroyed. 

The normal you knew at the start of the 

year is gone forever. It has been replaced 

by the pandemic activity that has seen 

the sales of printers flying off the shelves 

and into homes as social distancing is 

implemented and the work from home and 

home school protocols kick in. 

The normal you knew at the start 

of the year is gone forever. 

To make matters worse, the ILO forecasts 

that the drop in working hours in the 

current (second) quarter of 2020 is 

expected to be significantly worse than 

previously estimated. 

Taking to LinkedIn, IDC reports that 

worldwide shipments of hard copy 

devices were down 8.8% in Q1. It doesn’t 

take a rocket scientist to see that Q2 will 

be something similar or worse. So far 

Epson, Kyocera and Xerox all report 

tough times. Fuji are delaying their 

reporting and that is never good news. 

FEATURED 

A R TIC L E 

At some point in the coming weeks 

children will go back to school and 

workers will go back to the office, 

but do not expect the normal you 

were used to. First of all, every day the 

pandemic lockdown lasts economies are 

impacted. Some businesses won’t survive, 

those that do will take time to recover. 


You can contact visit www.therecycler.com The Recycler via Twitter for at all @RecyclerMedia 

the breaking news 

Some see the current situation as an 

opportunity and according to David 

Connett, a Partner at Connett & Unland 

GbR: “There are investors actively looking 

to make acquisitions at the moment. One 

investor has a €20 million ($21.64 million) 

fund to make acquisitions now. 

In the imaging sector most businesses 

are small relative to the OEMs and bigger 

players. Depending what sort of business 

it is and what the owners exit plans are, 

exiting now may be a better option than 

waiting two or three years for the new 

normal to emerge. Profitable, well run 

businesses will always sell.” 

Whatever the new normal will be, do not 

expect it to arrive any time soon because 

normal goes hand in hand with a stable 

economy and it will take a few years for 

economies to stabilise. As the lock down 

eases companies will reopen, but some 

businesses, stores and restaurants, resellers, 

collectors, remanufacturers will not reopen 

because they just ran out of financial 

resources to sustain their business during 

the lockdown. 

In a Reuters article the Barclays CEO, 

Jes Staley, said after the bank reported a 

fall in first-quarter profits: “Putting 7,000 

people in a building may be thing of the 

past.” The bank, which like companies 

worldwide has seen the majority of its staff 

work from home or backup sites, will not 

revert fully to its pre-January working 

habits, Staley added. 

Against a background of reduced printing, 

it is the OEMs who are likely to take the big 

hit over the next 18 months or longer. The 

OEMs are feeling the pinch as revenues 

plummet. OEM contacts tell us budget 

printers and consumables are selling well 

in Q1 and Q2, but the more lucrative 

corporate cost per copy revenues are down. 

The OEMs are feeling the 

pinch as revenues plummet. 

In an interview with CRN, HP CEO 

Enrique Lores said “that the move to workfrom-home 

and localised manufacturing 

through 3D printing will likely remain 

in the post-coronavirus world. We think 

that this is going to be a permanent effect. 

In any crisis, there are tailwinds and 

headwinds. Clearly, this is a significant 

tailwind." 

And while we would not agree with 

Lores on a lot of things, when it comes 

to the pandemic and the printer market, 

we would agree when he says, "when 

these situations happen, usually strong 

companies get stronger.” 

It is gloomy and for sure printed page 

volumes will plummet this year and expect 

that to recover somewhat in 2021, printed 

page volumes will not get back to 2019 

levels anytime soon, if ever. But it is not the 

end of the world. 


June 2020 

5

FEATURE 

Following a week of calling and talking 

to different aspects of the office imaging 

market, here is our take on what might 

evolve in the market. 

Trends in imaging 

Here are a few trends our readers are 

reporting to us in the last few weeks: 

• Inkjet printers- Sales of inkjet printers 

are booming to a point where resellers 

report that the OEMs have some supply 

issues for some models of new printers. 

One reseller told us that he had been 

advised of a three week delay for his 

order of 150 printers. 

• Inkjet consumables - The same situation 

exists for OEM consumables and that 

has increased the demand for refilled and 

remanufactured inkjet cartridges. In the 

Netherlands instore refilling is having a 

renaissance. 

• Reused printers – Here is a big 

turnaround. Historically used machines 

are purchased and exported, now the 

dealer channel is looking to acquire 

machines. Why? Social distancing. As 

people return to work, social distancing 

will be a norm. Gatherings around the 

copier / printer will be a thing of the past 

with more department size printers more 

evenly spread. 

Customers 

Some may close for good; others may 

downsize, early conversations will tell you 

their direction of travel and their needs. 

Good account management should always 

be a priority, but absolutely essential now. 

Agility 

When you start a business you run after 

every opportunity and take on whatever 

the customer needs. You are so agile it 

The report implies that the working from home 

workforce could double from 5% to 10%. 

is what defines your business. Then the 

business matures, and you focus on the 

customers that fit your business model. 

You gain volume and profitability, but you 

become less agile and some customers fall 

away. Today you need to switch agile mode 

back on at the 110%. Your current and new 

customers will want knowledge, expertise, 

a strong “can do” customer focus, and you 

need to be service orientated. Remember 

they have the money and you have to 

deliver the service. 

A remanufacturer has seen sales drop 20%, 

but they are picking up business from 

rivals because they have materials, empties 

and can supply to order. 

On the back of that, another well-known 

remanufacturer has suffered a 70% loss 

of sales since February. They operate in 

the education sector. While another is 

in the parts supply chain. Their sales 

are down 60% in the same period. Both 

company owners cite the perfect storm 

of demand falling, customers who are 

unable to pay to terms, suppliers wanting 

payment with order, and banks that are 

unwilling to assist. 

Work from home 

Not everyone will return to working from 

the office. One report we saw recently 

suggested that before the pandemic 5% 

of workers, did in fact work from home. 

The report implies that the working from 

home workforce could double from 5% 

to 10%. They will all need IT, cloud and 

server connectivity, printers, consumables 

and security. 

Deutsche Welle reported recently: “Millions 

of Germans are currently working from 

home, meeting via video conferences and 

using digital platforms for their jobs.” 

In a country that does work with a solid 

analogue paper trail, there are massive 

opportunities for digital integration and 

working. 


You can contact The Recycler via Twitter at @RecyclerMedia 

Let’s Work Together 

At times like these working together is more prominent than ever. We may 

not be able to visit our customers face-to-face, but we are working behind 

the scenes to ensure that we can support them and offer solutions to make 

business run as smoothly as possible. 

Ways Katun Can Help You: 

✔ We can deliver next day to your end-users 

✔ Excellent stock availability and competitive prices 

✔ We offer credit facilities for good standing customers* 

✔ Easy online ordering at www.katun.com/kolc 

*Subject to company credit checks and strict repayment terms. 


June 2020 

7

FEATURE 

Paperless office 

It is not coming any time soon, but print 

has reduced and will pick up as the global 

economies restart, but not at 2019 levels 

for the foreseeable future. 

People 

It is inevitable that companies will 

downsize, keep up to date with who 

is leaving and who is taking over their 

activities. Keep in touch with those that 

are leaving, they may be an opportunity 

in their new role. 

Competitors 

Not all of your competitors will make it. 

That is a golden opportunity to hire their 

talent and engage with their customers. 

Suppliers 

Your suppliers are facing the same 

challenges as you are and probably worse. 

They face the perfect storm of demand 

falling, customers who are unable to pay 

to terms, their suppliers wanting payment 

with order, and banks that are unwilling 

to assist. 

Some will increase prices and or cut 

credit lines. Airlines are doing it; freight 

companies will be doing it. Everyone will 

be doing it. It is not personal, but you 

need to shop around and if prices do go 

up, you need to respond. 

Corporates; Bus or a car? 

You need a car for private and work use, 

your choice will usually be brand driven 

and a combination of what you need, what 

you like and what you can afford. You 

would not, typically, buy a minibus just 

in case you needed to drive 8 people to the 

airport once every couple of months. So 

why do so many corporates invest in A3 

machines that can print 70+ a minute, but 

they rarely, if ever, print A3. And why buy 

a device that can print 3.6 million pages a 

year, when they only print 360 thousand 

pages a year. 

Corporates will look to keep their 

technology a lot longer and drive down 

costs. At the end of their cost per copy 

contract will be more than open to switch 

to a third party MPS provider. 

Corporates will look to keep their technology 

a lot longer and drive down costs. 

Cost per copy 

Will need to embrace all of the printer 

brands in the office and work from home 

environment. Not all dedicated OEM 

brand MPS can do that. You need an open 

source platform like Nubeprint, that can 

capture printer information across all 

the brands and utilising a range of data 

capture tools from a simple app to server 

monitoring. 

Your own business 

See where your customers are, what their 

needs and requirements are. Identify the 

new opportunities and be prepared to 

adapt accordingly. It is not a race, but an 

agile market. 

Time to call it a day 

Some business owners will reflect and 

decide for many reasons the time is now 

to exit. Typically, they are in their early 

sixties, have made a good living, paid the 

mortgage, put the kids through university. 

Exiting the business might be a better 

option than taking it through another 

cycle that could last five plus years. 

The good news is, there are others 

looking to invest. ■ 



30. 1. – 2. 2. 2021, Frankfurt am Main 

paperworld.messefrankfurt.com 

Remanexpo: 

Product Group 

Connecting people 

and businesses 

The dedicated part of the 

event focused on reuse 

and remanufacturing of 

printer cartridges 

Powered by 

Visit www.therecycler.com/live 

for more information 


June 2020 

9

IN THIS ISSUE 

On the cover 

Covid-19: Where to from here? 

Are you in the working 

from home sector? 

32 

Pelikan set to challenge 

the OEM space 

4 

36 

Editorial 

3 Survival of the fittest? 

Feature 

4 Covid-19: Where to from here? 

World Focus 

11 New hall concept for Remanexpo 

at Paperworld 2021 

12 ETIRA: Non-OEM new build 

cartridges not so safe? • Sharp 

releases firmware update 

13 Underprinting: HP faces new 

Class Action Complaint 

14 WEEE Forum responds to 

standards study • Paperworld 

2021 off to a solid start 

15 Ricoh jumps on the firmware 

bandwagon 

16 COVID-19: Have mindsets 

changed towards circular IT? 

18 Canon v ITC: Aftermarket 

wins….for now 

19 Japan to pull manufacturing 

from China 

City News 

20 OEM share prices May 2020 

• Turbon AG 2019 preliminary 

results out 

21 Ninestar reviews achievements 

in 2019 

22 OEMs miss forecasts due 

to global lock downs 

23 Delacamp: Imaging sales down, 

margins up 

Around the Industry 

24 123inkt scores another win 

• Pelikan launches rewards 

for dealers and end-users 

25 Apex wins science & technology 

award • Hubei Dinglong shows 

their labels 

26 Biuromax returns to partial 

normality • Stephen Schienbein 

heads up AKI GmbH 

27 Armor supports hospital with face 

shields • EveryonePrint to provide 

free access to HCP 

28 Bureau Vallée opens store 

in Thionville • Marketing: the 

humanistic approach 

29 PCL Group is here to help 

30 G&G talks environmental 

compliance • Greentec 

celebrates 25 th anniversary 

31 Trade Copiers win Queens Award 

Feature 

32 Are you in the working from 

home sector? 

36 Pelikan set to challenge 

the OEM space 

Products & Technology 

38 Ninestar launches G&G Reborn 

and more 

39 Firmware: GM Technology has 

Ricoh solution • CET launches 

latest products 

40 Microfont: A new anticounterfeiting 

solution • Utec 

introduces new refill technology 

41 Apex showcases latest solutions 

42 Gikar announces its latest solution 

• DMC Canotec introduces 

“The Agile Toolkit” • Mito 

launches latest solutions 

43 Katun introduces new products 

• Armor expands OWA 

winkjet range 


visit www.therecycler.com for all the breaking news 

EUROPE Remanexpo 2021, Paperworld 2021, Events 

New hall concept for Remanexpo at Paperworld 2021 

Three zones, new sustainability award: Hall 6.1. will focus on the three key sectors of the office imaging market. Reuse, 

Distribution and a Print Plus zone will enable the fair to showcase the full spectrum of the market to the widest direct 

and indirect market. 

The Remanexpo product area in hall 6.1 

has been an integral part of Paperworld 

for more than ten years. The event 

format for 2021 and beyond is now being 

updated in consultation with key industry 

players to reflect current trends. Over the 

past decade, the product area has evolved 

from being a market for OEM and 

remanufactured products to become a 

platform for OEM, remanufactured and, 

in recent years, new non-OEM products. 

At the same time, office printing is still 

a €10 billion industry, but the days of 

rapid introductions of print technology 

and high growth are behind us. The 

future is nonetheless still full of amazing 

opportunities. 

This is why the hall concept and 

combination of product groups in the 

Remanexpo area are being adapted for 

Paperworld 2021. "We are observing 

constant change within the market that 

we would now like to accommodate 

with the new concept. And it’s all about 

the audience, we don’t want them to 

merely consider coming, we want them to 

think there is no way they can miss this 

event. We want them to come and learn, 

network, get informed and inspired”, 

says Michael Reichhold, Director of 

Paperworld. 

Remanexpo: three distinct sectors 

The zone concept is a fresh approach 

to a changing market. A market where 

reuse, distribution and new products, 

technologies and services are competing 

to engage with the market. Each zone has 

its unique identity and enables exhibitors 

to position their business, products and 

services in the relevant zone. 

For visitors, the zones will enable 

them to get the most out of their time 

at the show and navigate the hall more 

effectively to find the products and 

services they seek. 

Reuse Zone – Reuse is at the heart 

of the EU’s Green agenda and will 

feature across all sectors over the coming 

years. The Reuse zone will feature 

remanufactured printer products, 

services and dedicated supplies from 

exhibitors where their main business is 

the reprocessing of printer material. 

Distributor Zone – This is where 

you will find distributors, full-service 

providers, component suppliers, OEM 

and aftermarket dealers as well as 

companies providing a full range of 

products and services. The distributor 

sector provides parts and components 

to remanufacturers and new non-OEM 

producers. 

Print Plus Zone - This is where you 

will find products or services that do not 

fit into the reuse or distributor category. 

This can include anything from printer 

software, 3D printing, new technologies 

and products etc. The exhibitors consist 

of new, up-and-coming and mainstream 

producers positioned outside the reuse or 

distribution zone. 

New Sustainability Award 

The Recycler is pleased to announce a 

new “Sustainability” award to its annual 

awards programme. The award will be 

for any new product/service invention; 

specification or improvement that has led 

to a more sustainable outcome. 

“The Recycler Awards" for 2021 will 

also feature Remanufacturer of the Year, 

Supplier of the Year, Innovation of the 

Year, Customer Service of the Year, and 

Rising Star of the Year. 

The Recycler Live Seminars 

Remanexpo will once again be 

accompanied by "The Recycler Live 

Seminars" in Hall 6.1. Visitors to the 

four-day congress will experience a 

varied series of presentations on the 

latest developments in the field of 

remanufactured printer consumables 

and hardcopy components. The seminars 

are free to attend, and the talks are held 

in English. ■ 


June 2020 

11

WORLD FOCUS 

EUROPE ETIRA, Toner, LGA, Tests 

GLOBAL Sharp, Firmware Updates, 

Chips, Aftermarket 

ETIRA: Non-OEM new build 

cartridges not so safe? 

ETIRA tests show that a selection of imported non-OEM new build cartridges 

sourced in Europe were tested by the German LGA Institute and 100% failed. 

Error Code 

ETIRA, as part of its product safety 

remit, today published the test results 

of three new build non-OEM cartridges 

purchased on Amazon. ETIRA then then 

commissioned the testing of the toner 

cartridges by Germany’s expert LGA test 

centre. 

Five further tests by the LGA were 

commissioned by other industry 

players concerned about product safety. 

According to ETIRA “The result was 

stunning: All eight new non-OEM new 

build cartridges failed the LGA emissions 

tests for multiple reasons.” 

Also included were the results of 

two toners widely in use by European 

remanufacturers and, according to 

ETIRA, both toners passed the LGA 

emissions test. 

Publishing the results, ETIRA said “The 

range of failures included excessive levels of 

cobalt, benzene, naphthalene and Bis(2- 

methoxyethyl) ether. Which may cause 

long lasting harmful effects to aquatic life, 

may cause an allergic skin reaction and 

may cause allergy or asthma symptoms or 

breathing difficulties if inhaled.” 

Javier Martinez, President of ETIRA 

said “These tests show that very often it 

is dangerous to buy new build non-OEM 

cartridges: by offering products containing 

dirty toners, traders are playing with the 

health of their customers. The current 

coronavirus pandemic will heighten the 

awareness and need for the products we use 

to be safe and reliable, and at the same time 

the standards required for CE and other 

certifications applied to goods entering the 

EU must be rigorously checked.” 

High levels of Benzene may be fatal if 

swallowed and may cause genetic defects, 

cancer and damage to organs through 

prolonged or repeated exposure. 

Naphthalene was present in seven of 

the tested cartridges and according to the 

ECHA classification this substance is 

very toxic to aquatic life, with long lasting 

effects, is harmful if swallowed and is 

suspected of causing cancer. 

Bis(2-methoxyethyl) ether, may damage 

fertility and may damage the unborn child 

and is a flammable liquid and vapour. 

ARTI-Italia President, Giovanni Ravelli 

commented: “In consideration of the 

events caused by COVID-19 we regarded 

of great interest the examination carried 

out by the European Association of Toner 

and Inkjet Remanufacturers, ETIRA, 

in our sector of printing consumables 

imported from the Far East. 

“Five years ago I wrote a commentary on 

the Encyclical Laudato Sì https://www. 

therecycler.com/posts/comments-andsuggestions-about-pope-francis-letteron-the-environment/. 

Today, recently 

celebrated World Earth Day and in the 

midst of a pandemic that left China and 

hit Italy hard, once again Pope Francis 

reminds us that "God always forgives and 

man sometimes, Nature never forgives"!” 

Editor’s Opinion: While the LGA test 

thresholds are not a legally binding at 

the moment, they do show a disquieting 

level of impurities that can impact on 

everyone in the supply chain, from toner 

manufacturers, assembly 

workers through to the 

final consumer. ■ 

You can download the 

test results here: 

Recognized "OK" 

Sharp releases 

firmware 

update 

The Recycler has learned that 

Sharp released its latest update 

causing problems for third party 

supplies in printers using MX60 

series cartridges. 

Sharp released a new firmware 

04.02.72 for printers used with MX60 

series cartridges in April 2020, causing 

some errors with replacement chips 

which are no longer recognised by 

printers such as MX-2651, MX-3071, 

etc. The printer prompts an "Install 

the toner cartridge" error message. 

Apex has just released an updated 

solution that overcomes this latest 

firmware update. 

Recently HP and Lexmark also 

released new firmware updates for 

which solutions are now available. ■ 


You can contact visit www.therecycler.com The Recycler via Twitter for at all @RecyclerMedia 

the breaking news 

GLOBAL HP Inc, Class Action, False Advertising 

Underprinting: HP faces 

new Class Action Complaint 

The class action complaint against HP, alleges that HP fails to disclose that 

the printers use substantial amounts of coloured ink when printing images 

and text in black and white (a process known as “underprinting”). 

All Stock Available 

Right NOW 

Toner Cartridges 

Chips 

Waste Toner Bottles 

Fuser Units 

Drum Units 

Developers 

OEM STOCK 

The Complaint was filed by Christina 

Rose in the United States District Court 

Northern District Of California on 10 

April, claiming she “brings this consumer 

protection and false advertising class 

action lawsuit against HP based on its 

misleading and unfair business practices 

with respect to the marketing and 

sale of certain HP colour printers (the 

“Printers”). 

The Complaint states that “consumers 

purchase the Printers reasonably believing 

that the Printers would not use colour 

ink when printing purely black and 

white text or images. Consumers further 

reasonably believe that the Printers will be 

able to print images or text in black and 

white regardless of whether colour ink is 

available.” 

As a result of this underprinting process, 

the Complaint says, consumers expend 

more on ink than they reasonably expected 

to, and are forced to buy colour ink in 

order to continue printing, whether they 

choose to print in colour or black and 

white. 

The Plaintiff is asking for relief and has 

demanded a trial by jury. 

Editor’s Opinion: HP in the firing line 

again, and while it is for lawyers to argue 

and judges to adjudicate, on first reading 

you get the distinct impression that this 

information should be clear at or before 

the point of sale. Alternatively, they 

could make the printers default to black 

and white only and just use the black ink 

cartridge. It will be interesting to see how 

this complaint pans out. ■ 

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June 2020 

13

WORLD FOCUS 

EUROPE WEEE Forum, Standards, WEEE Treatment 

WEEE Forum responds 

to standards study 

Umweltbundesamt GmbH and Dr Brüning Engineering 

UG have issued their study on Quality Standards for the 

Treatment of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment 

(WEEE), the WEEE Forum and CENELEC published 

their position papers in response. 

For many years, the WEEE Forum, 

usually in coalition with organisations 

representative of the producers and 

recyclers community, has expressed the 

view that it is of critical importance 

that facilities be legally required to 

collect, handle and treat WEEE in 

strict conformity with all normative 

requirements of EN 50625 and EN 50614, 

the suite of CENELEC standards covering 

the collection, transport, preparation for 

re-use and treatment of WEEE. 

This approach presents a unique 

opportunity to create a level playing 

field across the EU. The WEEE Forum 

therefore disapproves of the status quo of 

option 0 as well as of option 2 laying down 

additional minimum requirements for the 

collection, logistics, handling, treatment 

and preparing for re-use of WEEE in 

EU legislation. The WEEE Forum fully 

endorses the excellent analysis conducted 

by CENELEC TC 111X WG6 in its 

Annexes I and II. 

CENELEC in its position lays out 

that “the study shows some confusion 

between WEEELABEX (a certification 

body) and CENELEC (a standardisation 

organisation). Examples are provided 

in annex II. It should be noted that 

CENELEC has no certification or auditing 

function. We believe understanding this 

distinction is relevant for identifying the 

implementation of the different roadmaps 

proposed by the consultants. In addition 

to this, whilst WEEELABEX is a private 

accredited certification body, CENELEC 

is the producer of the EN 50625 series 

and EN 50614 standard. Moreover, the 

consultants seem to conclude that only 

certification is allowed for showing 

conformity against the standards, when 

there are other methods available like for 

instance self - declaration and conformity 

verification by a second or third party, 

being those accredited or non-accredited 

certification or inspection 

bodies.” ■ 

To read the full position 

published by CENELEC, 

please scan here: 

EUROPE Paperworld 2021, Remanexpo, Events, Frankfurt 

Paperworld 2021 off to a solid start 

Paperworld 2021, featuring the Remanexpo product group in Hall 6.1, 

held 30.01 - 2.02.2021 has already signed up over 830 exhibitors. 

The current situation poses a major 

challenge for German and international 

manufacturers and dealers. But despite 

the current COVID-19 pandemic, some 

830 exhibitors have already registered for 

Paperworld 2021. They are keen to return 

next year from 30 January to 2 February, 

and are already looking forward to faceto-face 

meetings, the organiser said. 

The impressive registration figures are 

proof that Paperworld is an important 

and valuable business platform for 

manufacturers, which is indispensable 

both for presenting their products and for 

making personal contact with customers. 

Especially after the restrictions imposed 

by COVID-19, meetings, exchanges with 

colleagues and partners and experiencing 

products first hand are all the more 

important and valuable - and Paperworld 

is the ideal platform for this. 

"We are delighted that Paperworld 

was able to take place so successfully in 

January 2020 in a great atmosphere and 

are currently planning the event for next 

year. In light of the current challenging 

economic background, the fact that we 

are receiving such a positive response 

is particularly encouraging. My team 

and I are doing all in our power to offer 

exhibitors and visitors a reliable platform 

for their international business in the 

coming year," said Michael Reichhold, 

Director of Paperworld. 

Exhibitors already registered for 

Paperworld 2021 in Hall 6.1 include 

returning exhibitors like 3T Supplies, 

Apex / Static Control, Armor, Katun, 

Pedro Schöller Printservice and 

many more. 

Working from home rather than in the 

office, virtual meetings instead of face 

to face, or setting up an online shop: 

Numerous new approaches are currently 

being developed. "At a time like now, 

when we are unable to meet in person, 

the online exhibitor search at paperworld. 

messefrankfurt.com, for example, is 

a great tool for finding new business 

contacts. Similarly, setting up and 

enhancing online shops is now extremely 

important for the trade. Looking to the 

future, I am particularly looking forward 

to seeing you again at Paperworld 2021, 

because personal interaction, making 

new business contacts and experiencing 

products at first hand are essential for 

international trade - and trade fairs 

like Paperworld are indispensable 

here,” Reichhold added. ■ 


Search for The Recycler on visit Facebook www.therecycler.com for more news for and all industry the breaking coverage news 

GLOBAL GM Technology, Firmware Update, Ricoh 

Ricoh jumps on the firmware bandwagon 

The Japanese OEM joined HP, Sharp and Lexmark releasing a firmware update in March, 

affecting third party cartridge used in its IM C series and MP C series devices. 

On 9 March of this year GM Technology 

detected a firmware update causing 

problems with compatible cartridges in 

Ricoh IM C series machines and some MP 

C series models. 

The new update with identifier 2.27.1 

affects all Ricoh IM C series machines 

(C2000, 2500, 3000, 3500, 4500 AND 

6000) and MP C models like the MP C2503 

and C2504. 

Conducting more research, GM 

Technology confirmed that the Ricoh 

firmware update is in line with the 'Always 

Current Technology' strategy launched 

by the brand in 2019. Where Ricoh has 

programmed its new firmware to run 

the update fully automatically without 

requiring prior authorisation from the user. 

The company stated “With this update 

installed, Ricoh can check the compatibility 

between the region of its machines and 

the toner cartridges to limit the use of its 

products between different geographical 

locations. For example, after this update 

European machines will only accept 

European toner cartridges.” 

With this latest update installed on Ricoh 

devices, the Japanese OEM will be able to 

verify the region code on the toner cartridge 

chip and if it does not match with the 

machine, it will automatically block the 

device and all its functions. 

Consumers using compatible toners 

created outside Europe my find their 

printer and all functions are blocked if the 

machine cannot verify the region code on 

the toner cartridge chip with the printer. 

If this happens, the user will see an error 

message on the screen and will not be able to 

continue using the printing device until the 

toner is replaced with a correct one. 

GM Technology said: “As an immediate 

priority we verified that the new update 

does not affect our remanufactured toners. 

With our own unique reset technology, we 

can reuse original chips and return them to 

their original factory condition.” ■ 

Print it 

green 

A breakthrough for 

the environment 

10 YEARS 

IN 

DEVELOPMENT 

Pelikan BIO Based Cartridges now with less impact to the planet! 

After 10 years of intensive research and development, Pelikan 

Bio Based cartridges create a completely new and gamechanging 

solution to help reduce reliance on fossil fuels and 

CO2 emissions. Print quality is outstanding and the best news 

is that there is no price premium versus OEM products. 

These innovative and game-changing cartridges comply with 

all EU and US standards. 

Start selling Pelikan Bio Based cartridges to help support the 

planet and help your customers save cost at the same time. 

www.pelikan-printing.com/biobased 


June 2020 

15

WORLD FOCUS 

GLOBAL Environment, Standards, Reuse 

COVID-19: Have mindsets changed 

towards circular IT? 

CEO of specialist refurbishing distributor Flex IT, says lockdown measures have woken 

many firms up to the value of repurposed hardware as demand soars across Europe. 

Many weeks of non-production in China 

due to strict Coronavirus lockdown 

measures, has caused a surge in companies 

across Europe demanding refurbished 

hardware to ensure their teams can 

continue working from home. 

Circular and eco-sustainable hardware 

distributor Flex IT, has experienced 

significantly increased demand for its 

products over the past eight weeks, as the 

supply of new products cannot keep up 

with demand. 

The firm, headquartered in the 

Netherlands, but which has offices in 

France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, 

Poland, Finland, Sweden, Bulgaria and the 

UK, works closely with vendors such as 

HP, Dell, Apple and Lenovo to buy excess 

stock and refurbish slightly older laptops, 

servers and mobile devices to the highest 

possible standard. 

Leon Timmermans, Chief Executive 

of Flex IT, said: “In the last month 

particularly, the market has exploded – we 

are one of the few industries that is doing 

extremely well at the moment. We are 

humbled that we can provide a circular 

solution that helps the business continuity 

of many companies in Europe in this 

challenging time. 

“Everybody is suddenly realising that the 

quality and function of a product is more 

important than being the latest, shiniest 

version. A laptop might be five years old, 

but you can still use it to do whatever you 

need to do. Demand has accelerated like 

crazy over the last eight weeks as firms 

recognise the quality of products available 

in the circular market,” he explained. 

“Large resellers across our key 

geographies are now coming to us, rather 

than us going to them, asking if we can 

supply 1,000 laptops here, or 1,000 there, 

because vendors were at the point of zero 

production in China and many companies 

had employees that worked off desktops 

in the office and no way of working 

remotely,” Timmermans added. 

In similar news, Inrego and IVL 

Swedish Environmental Research 

Institute announced the publication of 

a new database model to measure the 

environmental savings of reusing IT. 

The new database is independent and 

was developed by scientists to calculate 

environmental savings for IT equipment 

down to component level. The model 

contains information on many different 

categories of IT products such as laptops, 

monitors, smartphones, tablets, printers 

as well as accessories such as adapters, 

keyboards and RAM memory. 

“We have been working on reusing IT 

equipment for over 25 years, and we see 

that IT buyers' interest in sustainability is 

constantly increasing. We are very pleased 

that we can now share this database model 

with everyone who is planning to invest 

in IT, showcasing what economic and 

environmental savings an investment 

in reconditioned products would bring. 

We also have high hopes these types of 

calculations will become standard so that 

everyone in the industry can use them,” 

said Erik Pettersson, Environmental 

Manager at Inrego. 

Today, virtually all IT equipment can be 

refurbished and given a new life resulting 

in major environmental and financial 

savings. The calculations in the model 

assume that the reuse of a product results 

in a similar newly manufactured product 

not being bought, and therefore not being 

manufactured. 

Buying a reused laptop instead of a 

new one can, for example, save 280 kg 

of carbon dioxide emissions. Reusing 

computer monitors offers even greater 

savings – a massive 520 kg of carbon 

dioxide emissions on average. 

The new database model, developed 

by Inrego together with IVL Swedish 

Environmental Research Institute, is 

unique in its kind as the impact of all 

components has been analysed, and it can 

also be easily updated with new products 

and components as they come out. This 

gives buyers completely new opportunities 

to measure the climate impact of their new 

investments in IT equipment. 

“We hope this database model will 

inspire more people and organisations 

to reuse equipment. The idea is that the 

model will be used by companies who 

want to calculate the climate benefits 

of reuse for their customers. It can also 

be used by organisations that want to 

measure and see how they can reduce their 

climate impact by reusing IT products,” 

said Karin Sanne from IVL Swedish 

Environmental Research Institute. 

Editor’s Opinion: As the coronavirus 

pandemic carries on taking its toll on the 

global economy businesses are looking at 

new and innovative ways of expanding 

and recovering their revenue streams. 

Reusing IT fits with the remanufacturers 

ethos and enables expansion of services to 

meet the market demand. ■ 



GOGREEN! 

REACH 

READY 

20 

05/20 


June 2020 

17

WORLD FOCUS 

GLOBAL Canon, ITC Ruling, Amazon Removals 

Canon v ITC: Aftermarket wins….for now 

In a summary ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the earlier decision 

of the ITC in an appeal brought by Canon. 

The appeal by Canon was against an 

appeal from the United States International 

Trade Commission in Investigation No. 

337-TA-1106 where Aster Graphics, 

Ninestar Corporation, Static Control 

Components and Print-Rite were accused 

of infringing a number of its patents. 

The judgement issued in April said that in 

the appeal the judges had AFFIRMED. See 

Fed. Cir. R. 36. 

What does that mean? According to 

Federal Circuit Rules, a Rule 36 judgment 

means the ITC position was so clear, the 

Court had determined it was not necessary 

to issue a formal opinion. 

A Rule 36 judgment can be entered 

without opinion when it is determined by 

the panel that any one of five conditions 

exist and a written opinion would not have 

precedential value. The five conditions are: 

• The judgment, decision, or order of the 

trial court appealed from is based on 

findings that are not clearly erroneous. 

• The evidence supporting the jury’s verdict 

is sufficient. 

• The record supports summary judgment, 

directed verdict, or judgment on the 

pleadings. 

• The decision of an administrative agency 

warrants affirmance under the standard 

of review in the statute authorizing the 

petition for review. 

• A judgment or decision has been entered 

without an error of law. 

Shortly after the judgement was passed, 

Canon said in a statement that it continues 

to believe that the ITC's interpretation of 

the patent claims is overly narrow and is 

considering available options for seeking 

review of the Federal Circuit's decision. 

Canon added that it maintains a wide 

array of intellectual property rights relating 

to its toner cartridge technology and will 

continue to enforce those rights against 

manufacturers and sellers of infringing 

products. 

Due to COVID-19 office closures, we 

have not had many Amazon removal 

requests recently but latest announcements 

included the requests of removal of 

toner cartridge offered by StarTech 

Office Supplies from Amazon.ca, 

NEWYORKTONER from Amazon.com 

and yangquanshi chengquliupingshangdian 

via Amazon German, Italy and Spain. 

Canon Inc. announced the filing of an 

infringement report with Amazon.ca 

seeking removal of an Amazon.ca listing 

for certain toner cartridges sold by StarTech 

Office Supplies. 

Canon's infringement report alleged that 

certain model CF210X, CF210A, CF211A, 

CF212A, CF213A, CC530A, CC531A, 

CC532A, CC533A, CE410X, CE410A, 

CE411A, CE412A, CE413A, CF380X, 

CF380A, CF381A, CF382A and CF383A 

toner cartridges sold by StarTech Office 

Supplies via Amazon.ca infringed Canon's 

Canadian Patent no. 2,635,791. 

Canon requested the removal of 

the corresponding listings for these 

products, having Amazon Standard 

Identification Numbers B01AUPLZVC, 

B01AUPM0QG, B01AUPM1E2, 

B07S42BXMB, B075ZVY7JX, 

B015FMWGYU, B072C3Y35G, 

B01AUPLZTE, B01AUPLX96, 

B01NB0Z9SL, B01EV13FWI, 

B01FVE0B26, B07BN9J19X, 

B01HNZIYF2, B07C34M65T, 

B010ENVA3I, B010ENVJLQ, 

B07KZT1WXQ, B076F4MM4B, 

B07NNW589W, B01JG241MA, 

B01EY5TAB6, B01EWL517O and 

B01EY606RC. 

At the time of this announcement, 

products sold under the above-identified 

listings were no longer available on 

Amazon.ca. 

Canon also announced the filing of 

an infringement report with Amazon. 

com seeking removal of Amazon.com 

listings for certain toner cartridges sold by 

NEWYORKTONER for use in HP laser 

beam printers. 

Canon's infringement report alleged 

that certain model CE410A, CE411A, 

CE412A and CE413A toner cartridges 

sold by NEWYORKTONER via Amazon. 

com infringed Canon's U.S. Patent 

No. 8,588,646. Canon requested that 

Amazon remove NEWYORKTONER's 

listings for those products, namely, 

NEWYORKTONER's listings with 

Amazon Standard Identification Numbers 

("ASINs") B012YVKT26, B012YS1GLM, 

B012YSA758, B012YXCDPK, 

B012YS6P2C, B012YSYLBE, 

B012YTWBBA, B012YUB65G and 

B012YWJMHS. 

At the time of this announcement, the 

above-identified NEWYORKTONER 

listings were no longer available on 

Amazon.com. 

Also announced were the filing of 

Report Infringement Forms with Amazon. 

de, Amazon.it and Amazon.es based on 

the alleged use of claims 1 and 2 of the 

German, Italian and Spanish portions of 

Canon's European Patent EP 1 977 289 

("EP '289") regarding certain models of 

toner cartridges offered by yangquanshi 

chengquliupingshangdian Limited under 

the following ASINs (Amazon Standard 

Identification Numbers - see table below). 

Country Cartridge models ASIN 

Germany CC530A, CC531A, CC532A, CC533A B07V3SRKLS 

Italy CC530A, CC531A, CC532A, CC533A B07V3SRKLS 

Spain CC530A, CC531A, CC532A, CC533A B07V3SRKLS 

Afterwards, Amazon took down the 

respective products. These products are 

compatible with the OEM HP cartridge 

models and provide inter alia a non-OEM 

housing and a non-OEM force receiving 

device according to claim 1 of EP '289. 

Furthermore, they comprise an elastic 

portion according to claim 2 of EP '289. 

Filing a Report Infringement Form with 

Amazon is a service offered by Amazon 

and doesn't comprise any official finding 

of validity or infringement of a patent. 

The decision to take down a product is in 

the discretion of Amazon and is based on 

information provided by Canon. Amazon 

informed the vendor about the takedown 

and the vendor may object to it. ■ 



ASIA HP, China, Japan, Ricoh, Sharp, Coronavirus, US – China Trade War 

Japan to pull manufacturing from China 

Japan has allocated ¥220 billion ($2.2 billion / €2.03 billion) for Japanese companies to shift production to Japan 

and a further ¥23.5 billion ($239 million / €221 million) to relocate production to other countries. 

Global supply chains continue 

to be disrupted by the US-China trade 

war and the coronavirus pandemic. 

In response, Japan has announced 

a stimulus package worth ¥108.2 

trillion (US$993 billion / €917 billion), 

or about 20% of Japan's economic 

output. 

Included in the stimulus package 

is ¥220 billion ($2.2 billion / €2.03 

billion) for Japanese companies to 

shift production from China to 

Japan. A further ¥23.5 billion ($239 

million / €221 million) is available to 

help Japanese companies to relocate 

production to other countries. 

China is Japans largest trading partner 

and imports many components from 

China and exports sub-assemblies back 

to China for final production. This 

significant two-way flow of trade is 

higher for Japan than in other countries. 

Japan's economy is impacted by both 

the ongoing trade war and the 

coronavirus pandemic. 

United Nations Statistics Division 

data shows that China produces 28% 

of the global demand for manufacturing. 

China's economy is based on 

manufacturing, with the USA in second 

place with 16% and Japan in third place 

with 7.5%. 

In May 2019 in response to the US- 

China trade war, Ricoh announced 

it was moving production of MFP 

printer models to Thailand. Sharp 

announced a similar move at the 

same time. 

Editor's Opinion: In the post 

coronavirus and US-China trade war 

era, the big question is will this trend 

speed to other countries. Or will 

manufacturers quietly move back 

to China? ■ 


June 2020 

19

CITY NEWS 

OEM share prices 

May 2020 

Share Prices 

Company APRIL MAY 

Brother Industries (Yen) ¥ 1736 1805 

Canon (Yen) ¥ 2256 2145 

Dainippon Ink & Chemicals (Yen) 

Sun Chemicals parent company 

¥ 2418 2630 

HP Inc. (US$) $ 15.86 15.25 

Hubei Dinglong (RMB) ¥ 11.84 12.83 

Jadi (MYR) M 0.035 0.04 

LG Chem (S Korean Won) W 326.5 354k 

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. 

(Yen) Panasonic parent company 

¥ 803.9 809.5 

Mitsubishi Chemicals (Yen) ¥ 611.3 572.4 

Ninestar Corporation (RMB) 

Formerly Apex Microelectronics 

¥ 29 29.9 

Oki (Yen) ¥ 1007 1051 

Seiko Epson (Yen) ¥ 1053 1112 

Turbon AG (Euro) € 2.26 2.2 

Xerox (US$) $ 18.8 14.89 

UK Waste Prices 

price per tonne 

Aluminium € 194.85 120.17 

Plastic € 340.17 280.74 

Paper € 11.6 19.27 

Currency 

€/US$ 1.1 1.08 

€/£ 0.87 0.89 

£/US$ 1.26 1.22 

£/€ 1.15 1.12 

Oil Price 

Crude oil - (US$) 'Brent Crude 

futures, 1-Pos IPE close' per barrel* 

Shipping Prices 

Europe 

(Hamburg/Antwerp/Felixstowe 

/Le Havre) 

Mediterranean 

(Barcelona/ Valencia/Genoa/Naples) 

USWC 

(Los Angeles/Long Beach/Oakland) 

USEC 

(New York/ Savannah /Norfolk 

/Charleston) 

Prices correct as of 1 st May 2020 

$ 31.38 32.45 

$ 734 831 

$ 859 875 

$ 1630 1686 

$ 2720 2542 

Sources: HMRC, FT.com, krx.co.kr tse.or.jp, Environment Exchange, 

packagingnews.co.uk *Brent Crude price is for April 2020 

EUROPE Turbon AG, Financials, Business 

Turbon AG 2019 

preliminary results out 

In an adhoc announcement Turbon AG announced an 

equity neutral transfer of currency differences and included 

preliminary results for 2019. 

The provisional consolidated 

sales were €55.1 million ($59.5 

million) in the financial year 

2019, compared to €65.2 

million ($70.41 million) in the 

previous year. The forecast for 

2019 that was published in the 

2018 annual report predicted 

a turnover of €60 to €65 

million ($64.8 million to $70.2 

million). 

In the interim report for 2019 

this was amended to €58 to 

€60 million ($62.6 million 

to $64.8 million). Turbon 

cited that the planned revenue 

from the remanufactured 

toner cartridge division lagged 

behind forecast. 

The company explained 

that preparing the 2019 

consolidated financial 

statements of Turbon AG 

resulted in the need to rebook 

the equity position over a 

longer time period as a result 

of currency translation 

differences. Commenting 

the transfer is indeed equityneutral, 

i.e. it has no influence 

on the amount of equity 

however, to be carried out 

in accordance with IAS 21 

via the consolidated income 

statement. 

The currency translation 

differences are from the 

1990s to the recent past 

and arise from the intensive 

international business 

relationships between the 

various Group companies. 

Over the past two and a half 

years the realignment of the 

group of companies has seen 

the currency translation 

differences largely disappear. 

The reclassifications 

that feature in the 2019 

consolidated financial 

statements amount to €8.9 

million ($9.6 million). 

The pre-tax result was 

provisionally -€3.2 million 

plus the €8.9 millions from 

the equity-neutral transfers 

as described above, so a total 

of -€12.1 million ($13.04 

million) compared to the 

previous year -€7.0 million 

($7.54 million). 

Turbon stated as the reason 

for the failure to reach the 

originally forecasted results 

that sales figures in the 

printing segment lagged 

behind what was predicted. 

The Group's equity 

provisionally amounted 

to €15.2 million ($16.39 

million) on 31 December 2019 

compared to €18.8 million 

($20.28 million) on 

31 December 2018. ■ 



ASIA Ninestar, Financials, Business 

Ninestar reviews achievements in 2019 

In one of its latest infographics, Ninestar highlights 2019 full year results and achievements for the group. 

Revenue for the fiscal year 2019 was 

¥23.296 billion ($3.298 billion/ €3.015 

billion), an increase of 6.25% year-onyear 

with net profit attributable to 

shareholders of ¥744 million ($105,346 

million/ €96,29 million), a drop of 

21.71% year-on-year. 

Ninestar said that revenues from 

compatible printing consumables 

reached ¥3.724 billion ($527,298 

million/ €482,086 million). The 

company added: “The consumable 

business continued to prosper. Under 

0520-Go2-PPE_RecyclerAd.pdf 1 19/05/2020 23:47 

the fierce global competition in the 

consumables industry, Ninestar, 

a leading company in the global 

market segment known by its patent 

technology, product quality and market 

share advantages, had much higher 

growth rate of sales in consumables 

than the industry average.” 

In 2019, Lexmark’s printer sales 

increased 8% year-on-year, which 

Ninestar said was amongst the highest 

rate in the global market. The company 

recorded operating income of ¥17.96 

billion ($2.543 billion/ €2.324 billion) 

for the period, an increase year-on-year 

of 4.6%. Pantum recorded a 48% yearon-year 

increase with global shipments 

reaching 1.15 million units. Pantum’s 

key markets include India, China and 

Russia which according to Ninestar 

continued to see a rapid growth. 

For the Q1 2020 Ninestar recorded 

revenues of ¥5.24 billion ($742,015 

million/ €678,340 million), a 2.17% 

increase year-on-year. For the first 

quarter in 2020 Ninestar’s integrated 

circuit business which includes Apex 

and Static recorded revenues of ¥1.297 

billion ($183,636 million/ €167,902 

million). Ninestar added: “Apex has 

maintained its competitiveness in 

first-to-market products and released 

a number of new product line. 

Meanwhile, in response to frequent 

firmware upgrades of OEM in 2019, 

Apex has preceded others with effective 

product solutions.” 

By the end of 2019 the company had 

a total of 18,491 employees worldwide 

and had acquired 4,498 authorised 

patents, including 3,206 invention 

patents, 978 utility patents, 314 design 

patents, and 87 software copyrights and 

integrated circuit layout designs. 

Looking forward to plans in 2020, 

Ninestar said that it is looking to carry 

out efficient prevention and actively 

respond to firmware upgrades from the 

OEMs. Ninestar plans to release four 

new MCU products in 2020, focusing 

on medical equipment, household 

appliances, motor control, mobile 

phone peripherals, sharing economy 

and IoT, etc. 

For its consumables business, Ninestar 

said it will further the integration across 

its businesses within this segment, but 

also mentions there will need to be cost 

reductions. The company is looking to 

adopt a multi-brand strategy and cover 

as many market segments as possible. 

For Lexmark and Pantum, Ninestar is 

looking to realise continuous growth of 

printer sales and supplies sales. ■ 

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June 2020 

21

CITY NEWS 

GLOBAL OEM, Business, Financials 

OEMs miss forecasts due to global lock downs 

Some OEMs released their first quarter results and full year results, missing forecasts for the period and withdrawing 

forecasts for the next fiscal year, due to COVID-19 impacts. 

For the reporting period ended 31 

March 2020, Xerox recorded $1.86 billion 

(€1.70 billion) of revenue, a decrease of 

14.7% year-on-year from the $2.18 billion 

(€2 billion) recorded in the first quarter 

of fiscal year 2019. 

“During this unprecedented time, we 

are committed to doing everything in 

our power to protect our employees, 

customers, partners and society, because 

we all have a critical role to play battling 

the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Xerox 

Vice Chairman and CEO John Visentin. 

“While Xerox saw an immediate 

impact to our business due to the rapid 

implementation of lockdown measures 

globally, the disciplined approach we 

implemented over the last two years 

provided a foundation to move quickly 

to preserve cash, continue operations, 

provide support to our many clients 

on the frontlines, and apply our 

manufacturing and R&D expertise to 

help save lives. I’m incredibly proud of the 

Xerox team’s dedication and ingenuity 

during this extraordinary time,” Visentin 

added. 

The company added that it is 

withdrawing its 2020 financial guidance 

for revenue, adjusted operating margin, 

EPS and free cash flow due to the high 

level of economic uncertainty and 

disruption caused by COVID-19. 

For the year ended 31 March 2020, 

Kyocera recorded sales revenues for the 

whole company of ¥1.599 trillion ($14.92 

billion/ €13.75 billion), a decrease from 

the previous fiscal year where Kyocera 

recoded sales of ¥1.623 trillion ($15.14 

billion/ €13.96 billion). 

Its Document Solutions Group segment 

recorded sales revenues of ¥35.99 billion 

($335 million/ €309 million) which 

accounted for 22.5%, compared to 

23.1% in the previous year of the whole 

company’s sales and is a decrease of 4.1% 

year-on-year compared to the same period 

during the last financial year. 

In its financial forecast for the financial 

year ending 31 March 2021, Kyocera said 

that COVID-19 will have an impact on its 

business assuming lower Printer and MFP 

demand in the first quarter and possible 

recovery from the second quarter. 

In light of this, Kyocera is predicting 

sales revenues for the year ending 31 

March 2021 of ¥1.500 trillion ($13.99 

billion/ €12.9 billion). Sales revenues 

for the Document Solutions Group are 

forecasted as ¥32.0 billion ($298 million/ 

€275 million). 

Epson recorded revenues of ¥1.043 

trillion ($9.78 billion/ €8.99 billion), a 

decrease of 4.2% from the previous fiscal 

year where revenues were recorded as 

¥1.089 trillion ($10.21 billion/ €9.39 

billion). Business profits were down 42% 

at ¥40,861 billion ($383 million/ €352 

million). 

Net sales for the period were ¥715,768 

billion ($6.71 billion/ €6.17 billion), also 

a decrease year-on-year of 9.5%, where 

sales were recorded as ¥790,424 billion 

($7.41 billion/ €6.81 billion). 

Epson added: “It is not possible at 

this stage to accurately and reasonably 

calculate the impact of the coronavirus 

pandemic. Therefore, the consolidated 

financial outlook has yet to be finalised. 

The financial outlook will be announced 

as soon as it is possible to do so.” 

Canon released its Q12020 results where 

the global coronavirus pandemic has 

had an impact. Inkjet boosted by remote 

working and learning, laser sales down 

despite new models and MFD sales were 

sluggish. 

Canon explained that in the first quarter 

of 2020, the period ended 31 March 2020, 

the global economy rapidly declined due 

to limited economic activity caused by the 

coronavirus disease (“COVID-19”) global 

pandemic. 

Canon’s first-quarter net sales decreased 

by 9.5% year-on-year to ¥782.3 billion 

($7.26 billion/ €6.73 billion). Gross 

profit as a percentage of net sales rose by 

0.6 points to 45.8%. 

Sales of consumables also declined, 

reflecting impact from the global 

economic slowdown. These factors 

resulted in total sales for the business 

unit of ¥397.6 billion ($3.69 billion/ 

€3.42 billion), a year-on-year decrease 

of 9.4%, while income before income 

taxes increased by 2.4% year-on-year to 

¥47.3 billion ($439.41 million/ €407.05 

million) due to cost reduction. 

Canon in light of the COVID-19 

pandemic, decided to revise its 

consolidated financial results forecast for 

the fiscal year ending 31 December 2020, 

to undetermined. Going forward, once it 

become possible to provide a consolidated 

results forecast, Canon will make an 

announcement. ■ 


Search for The Recycler on Facebook for more news and industry coverage 

EUROPE Delacamp, Financials, 2018, Supplier 

Delacamp: Imaging sales 

down, margins up 

The company recently published their latest financial 

statements that show imaging sales were down, but 

speciality chemical sales were up. 

Hamburg-based Delacamp reports that 

2018 revenues decreased by €916,000 

($989,989) to €17.083 million ($18.463 

million), a 5.1% decline compared to the 

previous year, whereas the resulting gross 

profit increased by €582,000 ($629,076), a 

19% year-on-year increase. 

Delacamp business activities include the 

worldwide sale of consumables and spare 

parts for the reprocessing of cartridges 

for laser and inkjet printers as well as the 

trade in engineering plastics and highperformance 

plastics. 

2018 Imaging sales declined by €2.04 

million ($2.21 million) to €12.22 million 

($13.45 million). However, the gross profit 

increased by €426,000 ($461,000) to €2.9 

million ($3.14 million) in comparison to 

the previous year, despite declining sales, 

the gross profit margin increased by 6.4% 

from 17.4% to 23.8%. 

The company cites “the continuing 

import of inexpensive finished cartridges 

from the Far East, the steady decline in 

printing volumes in the Delacamp sales 

areas the ongoing consolidation on the 

procurement and sales markets as well 

as the economically difficult general 

conditions for this industry in Southern 

Europe had a significant impact on the 

sales development in the imaging area 

Sales markets as well as in the area of the 

ex-Soviet Union.” 

In the Convena Polymers division the 

company continued the expansion of 

the product portfolio and through the 

acquisition of new customers and 2018 

revenues increased €1.17 million ($1.26 

million) to €4.65 million ($5.02 million) 

and the gross profit increased by €222,000 

($239,909) to €770,000 ($832,166). The 

gross profit margin was 16.6% (previous 

year 15.7%). 

In their 2019 forecast the company said 

“We expect business to develop positively 

in the 2019 financial year. According to 

the budget planning for 2019, an annual 

profit of €144,000 ($155,626) is forecast. 

By the time this management report was 

prepared, the pro rata target figures for 

2019 had been reached. 

“In view of the expected economic 

development and the expected 

improvement in sales due to the targeted 

organic and inorganic growth in trading 

in high-performance polymers, we expect 

business to be satisfactory in the 2019 

financial year and expect the company's 

financial position to remain stable.” ■ 


June 2020 

23

AROUND THE INDUSTRY 

EUROPE 123inkt, HP, IP, Lawsuits 

EUROPE Pelikan, Rewards 

Programme, Dealers 

123inkt scores another win 

The online retailer who has been battling it out in the Netherlands courts 

with Samsung and HP, has announced their latest wins against the OEMs. 

Ever since December 2013, Samsung 

and 123inkt have been battling it out in 

court. The South Korean multinational 

claimed that certain parts in specific 

compatible cartridges infringed two 

patents and two industrial designs. 

Following the earlier decisions in the 

summary judgement proceedings, the 

proceedings on the merits, which have 

taken more than six years, have finally 

resulted in a judgment in appeal. 

123inkt reported that on Tuesday 

21 April 2020, the Court of Appeals 

in The Hague rendered judgement 

and overturned in large part the earlier 

decision by the District Court from 

30 November 2016, by declaring one 

of the two patents and both industrial 

designs invalid. Furthermore, HP/ 

Samsung has been ordered to repay the 

litigation costs that 123inkt previously 

had to pay under the initial judgment. 

Alongside this procedure, proceedings 

on the merits regarding three other 

patents were also ongoing since 

December 2013. These patents are 

related to the position of chips on toner 

cartridges. 

Following a procedure that lasted 

almost five years, these patents were 

declared invalid by The Hague 

District Court on 17 October 2018. 

HP/Samsung appealed this decision. 

However, on 25 February 2020 the 

Court of Appeals in The Hague ruled 

in favour of 123inkt once more. 

Therefore, these three patents are 

definitely null and void, 123inkt added. 

It is not just 123inkt that has been 

embroiled in legal battles with HP/ 

Samsung. The foundation that 

represents customers of 123inkt private 

label cartridges has been embroiled 

in a battle with HP as well. 

This foundation was established in 

2016, when 123inkt.nl began receiving 

substantial numbers of complaints. 

It came to light that HP had released 

a firmware update, without customer 

consent, which caused users to receive 

error notifications on a massive scale. 

The foundation (called Stichting 

123inkt-huismerk klanten) tries to make 

sure that updates such as these become 

prohibited and looks after the interests 

of the 123inkt private label customers 

in the fight against the injustice they 

suffered. And with partial success, 

as HP lost the appeal against the 

foundation in December 2019 and has 

been ordered to pay damages. 

However, firmware updates that block 

use of third party cartridges, were not 

banned. The foundation has therefore 

appealed to the Dutch Supreme Court, 

123inkt said. “Compensation of 

damages is a start, however, we want 

to safeguard all users of compatible 

cartridges against such updates, that 

restrict their freedom of choice, in the 

future”, stated the foundation. 

According to 123inkt: “These 

judgements of the last months won’t 

result in a return of the status quo in the 

printer and cartridge markets, however. 

There is a final verdict now in several 

cases, but the printer manufacturers 

keep going and 123inkt is still embroiled 

in several other legal battles with HP and 

Epson, amongst others.” ■ 

Pelikan launches 

rewards for 

dealers and 

end-users 

Aimed at dealers and end-users, 

the programme offers rewards and 

incentives when ordering online. 

Pelikan, the global 182-year-old brand 

has launched its new Pelikan Rewards 

Club programme for its partners and 

their customers. 

This programme allows dealers to 

reward not only its sales force but also 

their customers by offering them a wide 

choice of rewards to order on Pelikan’s 

online platform. Throughout the year 

different promotions and incentives 

will be available for members of the 

programme. 

How it works ? 

• Register your Pelikan Rewards Club 

account using the details in the 

welcome email you will receive after 

registering 

• Your points will be added in your 

account each month based on your 

orders 

• Once points appeared in your 

account, spend it in the online 

catalogue! 

For more information visit 

www.pelikan-printing.com/rewards. ■ 



ASIA Apex, Chips, Science and Technology 

ASIA Hubei Dinglong, Ecolabel, Toner 

Apex wins science & 

technology award 

On 25 March, Apex’s Integrated Circuit Security Chip Project based on 

domestic 32-bit CPU won the second prize at the Guangdong Science and 

Technology Innovation Conference. 

The meeting was hosted by the 

Department of Science and Technology 

of Guangdong Province, aiming to 

select the individuals that have made 

outstanding contributions, and excellent 

innovative enterprises in natural science, 

technological invention, science and 

technology progress, and scientific and 

technological cooperation. 

Apex won the prize for the third time, 

after the company won the price both 

in 2012 and 2016. 

With over ten years of background 

in technology and capabilities in IC 

chip design, Apex products extended 

from printer cartridge chips to printer 

controller SoC, and the universal MCU 

successfully launched in 2018, Bluetooth 

low consumption SoC, and network 

communication security chip. 

The company said about the win: 

“Constantly innovating in crisis has 

always been the philosophy of Apex. 

The outbreak of the COVID-19 has 

severely damaged the economy and 

threatened people's lives, made us feel the 

importance of science and technology 

and the need for innovation. 

“As always, Apex will continue to focus 

on the development of IC industry, 

making its effort to the construction 

of a strong province of scientific 

and technological innovation and 

the implementation of building the 

Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater 

Bay Area into an international science 

and technology innovation centre.” ■ 

Hubei Dinglong 

shows their labels 

The toner manufacturer has released 

its latest list of NWS Ecolabel 

certified toners. 

The toner manufacturer is a major 

supplier to the remanufacturing sector 

and produces a broad range of Ecolabel 

approved HP Toners. 

Talking about the certified toners, the 

company said: “We understand the rigours 

of Eco Label requirements in European 

market and therefore have engaged with 

TUV Rheinland LGA Products GmbH 

to conduct the R6 emissions test for 

selected products. Full certification and 

reports can be provided upon request.” 

As products become more popular Hubei 

Dinglong plans to submit additional 

material as and when the volumes dictate. 

Hubei Dinglong added: “It is a prerequisite 

of our R&D process to select raw 

materials that will meet the requirements 

of emission tests on a 

global basis.” ■ 

For further details see the 

updated list with Ecolabel 

approved toners here: 


June 2020 

25


EUROPE Biuromax, COVID-19, Business 

Biuromax returns to partial normality 

The company has returned to working within its offices in Baniocha after a brief period of remote 

working due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Biuromax’s team has returned to Baniocha, 

returning to partial normality after a brief 

period of remote working for the team. As 

the team explains home office working came 

with its many challenges and “most of the 

Biuromax team returned to their desks with 

joy (quite often – and we admit it openly – 

to run away from domestic duties and school 

tasks of our kids who are currently in home 

education).” 

Working routines needed to be adapted 

but each division is now represented by no 

more than two persons appointed to be on 

duty. As a result of that, just 10 people out of 

the whole 40-strong team are present at the 

office. In order to additionally limit the risk, 

Biuromax have appointed fixed teams – so 

that its employees meet the same people 

each time. 

Biuromax added: “The necessary safety 

measures – keeping a proper distance, 

disinfecting hands and keeping the office 

spotlessly clean – are a reminder of the 

current situation. No matter if we are on 

duty or working from home, we remain 

available to our clients.” 

Talking about its period of remote 

working, Biuromax shared: “Before the 

epidemic, the idea of our work was focused 

mainly on direct contacts with clients: 

meetings, talks, trainings, supplementary 

education, organising and dispatching 

deliveries. This is why the change in the 

operational mode of the office was quite 

revolutionary for us. 

“The several weeks in which we had to 

switch entirely to remote work have taught 

us a lot. Above all, such an experience really 

strengthens the relationships within the 

team! We depend on our mutual help to a 

much greater degree. We take responsibility 

not only for our own actions, but also for 

the pace and quality of information passed 

on to the other team members – as the 

information flows via phone and internet 

only. Because of that, the effectiveness of the 

whole team depends on each of us and all 

decisions and actions have quick results. 

“How did we perform? We can proudly 

say that even at the stage of remote work 

we haven’t “lost” a single query from our 

clients!” 

Biuromax speaks of the importance 

of motivation during the home working 

period and said for its team having the 

right mindset was part of its success. As 

Biuromax team explained: “We also held 

frequent video conferences, during which 

we discussed crucial issues and projects. 

Focusing on the planned goals allowed 

us to experience satisfaction with each 

completed task instead of just counting 

the days until the return to the office. 

This was the key to success!” ■ 

EUROPE Kyocera, Business, Germany 

Stephen Schienbein heads up AKI GmbH 

The document management provider Kyocera Document Solutions has appointed Stephen Schienbein to a dual 

function for the new financial year. 

▲ Stephen Schienbein Sales Director, 

Kyocera & CEO, AKI GmbH 

In addition to his position as Kyocera 

Sales Director, Schienbein will also be 

responsible for AKI GmbH. He succeeds 

Martin Kellner, who retired, and will 

continue to drive the strategic direction 

of the Würzburg software company. 

Schienbein has been with Kyocera since 

2005. Before that, he worked for Karstadt 

and for Tech-Data-predecessor Computer 

2000. In 2009, he took over overall 

responsibility for the organisation of the 

internal sales team as Senior Channel 

Sales Manager and representative of 

the Sales Director. In his role, he was 

responsible for the distribution channel 

and consumables, and set up the e-tail 

channel as a B2B provider and a business 

operations team. 

Schienbein has been the Sales Director 

of all Kyocera sales areas since 2016 

and, in times of digitalisation, focused 

primarily on the transformation 

of Kyocera. In the past few months, 

Schienbein has worked intensively 

on synergy effects within the companies 

of the German Kyocera group. ■ 



EUROPE Armor, 3D Printing, 

COVID-19, Innovation 

EUROPE EveryonePrint, HCP, Printing 

▲ Hubert de Boisredon Chairman 

& CEO, Armor 

Armor supports 

hospital with 

face shields 

The French company is doing its bit 

in the fight against the pandemic by 

3D printing face visors for the local 

hospital in Nantes. 

French newspaper Le Figaro reported 

that with the help of a collaboration 

between the University of Nantes and 

Armor, Nantes University Hospital 

has received 800 3D printed protective 

visors last week. The visors were tested 

for suitability by the University for 

medical use. 

In the report, a CHU spokesperson 

said that the plan is to ramp up 

production of the face shields to 1,000 

a day and expand use from just hospital 

staff to other frontline staff who are the 

most exposed to the virus. ■ 

EveryonePrint to provide free 

access to HCP 

The software company is offering Hybrid Cloud Platform (HCP) subscriptions 

to frontline services free of charge through to 31 December 2020. 

EveryonePrint has launched the initiative 

in order to help blue light emergency 

services, healthcare, pharmacy and food 

sector providers, to benefit from the agility 

and innovation of cloud technology to 

make printing less complex for workers as 

the world combats COVID-19. 

Through its global network of channel 

partners, EveryonePrint is offering 

qualifying organisations as many licenses 

as they need (without limits) across its core, 

embedded and hosted offerings (hardware 

excluded). There is no obligation to continue 

using the platform after 31 December. 

“We recognise the importance of keeping 

essential businesses moving during this 

period of significant disruption. With 

many frontline service staff now working 

differently, across distributed sites or in 

temporary/pop up locations, including IT 

personnel, leveraging the benefits of cloud 

agility to ensure seamless and secure access 

to printing for everyone, has never been 

more important,” said Tavs Dalaa, CEO, 

EveryonePrint. 

“HCP reduces the burden on IT, it’s easy 

to manage printer deployment, configure 

default settings and control access all from 

a central point. The software provides 

the strongest security between endpoints 

including encryption of data at rest and 

enables organisations to use their own 

Trusted CA certificates,” he added. ■ 


June 2020 

27


EUROPE Bureau Vallée, Franchise, 

Business 

EUROPE ECS, Humanistic Marketing, Business 

Marketing: the 

humanistic approach 

ECS’s CEO and Marketing Director Felicity Rabbitte discusses 

the importance of a humanistic marketing approach. 

Bureau Vallée 

opens store 

in Thionville 

Europe’s fasted growing office 

supplies and stationery business 

continues to expand with the 

opening of a Bureau Vallée store 

in Thionville, France. 

The store opened on the 19 February 

in Thionville, located in the North 

East of France on the left bank of the 

Mosel river, close to Luxembourg and 

Germany and is the fifth store in the 

region. 

The 145m² store is located in the 

Thionville city centre and has a 

range of almost 5,000 products 

and focuses on sustainable and 

environmentally friendly products and 

utilises an ecological rating system to 

classify products according to their 

environmental impact. 

This is the second store is managed 

by by Joëlle Maujard, the General 

Manager of an IT company and 

combines the two roles. Speaking to 

AC Franchise magazine she said: “We 

are preparing for the future and today 

I am taking part in the sustainable 

development strategy. We are no longer 

just trading, we are taking a step back, 

we are active and proactive, and today 

it is that aspect that interests me.” ■ 

▲ Felicity Rabbitte CEO & 

Marketing Director, ECS 

ECS’s CEO and Marketing Director, 

Felicity Rabbitte on how their humanistic 

marketing approach which they have used 

to build their own brand. 

The humanistic marketing concept 

is often referred to as a more ‘personal’ 

marketing approach and is a relatively 

new marketing methodology that is often 

overlooked, is unknown or seen as a waste 

of time, by some companies. According to 

Rabbitte “it doesn’t instantly scream ‘sell’ 

– to the naked eye, but what is selling? Is 

it capturing a customer through a simple 

offer or by creating a successful customer 

relationship to the point where your 

customer is more of a friend? Surely it can 

be both?” 

ECS suggest that a humanistic approach 

can help you to do the latter, which can 

be more positively profitable in the long 

term. 

Rabbitte explained “The concern of 

a humanistic marketing approach is to 

create a more ‘personal touch’ for each of 

your customers, enabling you to establish 

rapport with those who you see as 

potential customers.” 

Marketing is all about human 

connections and where we use technology, 

bots, automation and Artificial 

Intelligence (AI) to engage with people. 

AI is being used more and more to qualify 

and generate leads. David Connett, 

Partner at media and marketing company, 

Connett & Unland GbR, says “it's easy 

to relegate the human interaction as you 

strive for productivity, but converting 

prospects to customers is the marketing 

challenge, and once you have a lead do 

you focus on price or take a longer term 

relationship model? Human engagement 

is essential to establish strong long term 

connections with customers who are more 

likely to pay premium prices.” 

The ECS experience over the years 

suggests that “prospects are more likely 

to become clients of companies who they 

trust, like and relate to, but this is only 

achievable with a humanistic marketing 

approach. Without this approach your 

brand may lack personality, making it 

near impossible for customers to relate 

to you. Regardless of the product you’re 

selling (even toner cartridges!) your 

approach should be humanistic. Getting 

the balance right is so vital” Rabbitte 

commented. 

Rabbitte continued, “Communication 

online is important, but it isn’t 

everything. You have to get out and meet 

your clients. We often meet our clients, 

even if it’s for a catchup over a coffee or 

lunch. It’s the small personal touches 

that make a difference when it comes 

to converting a prospect to a client, or 

making a new client a client and friend 

for life.” 

ECS suggests that the reason behind this 

is because customers want to know who 

is behind the telephone, who is behind 

your marketing releases, who runs your 

company? ECS explained that in their 

case, the majority of the ECS client base 

know the directors in quite some detail, 

as well as some other members of staff, 

including a lot about their personal 

lives. This is simply because their clients 

appreciate ECS more by being able to 

associate a face with the brand. 

On the topic of humanistic marketing, 

ECS concludes “…during the worlds 

current crisis. Shoving products and 

offers in people’s faces isn’t necessarily the 

smartest idea. Relating to your customers 

(who are more than likely in a similar 

situation to you) is a fantastic way to 

create new relationships and potential 

customers ready for when the world is 

back to normal.” ■ 



EUROPE PCL Direct Group, DPD, Circular Economy 

PCL Group is here to help 

In a note to customers, the PCL Group said that it has successfully changed 

operations to remote working where possible. 

As the impact of the Coronavirus 

(COVID-19) continues to be seen 

across the world, the PCL Group have 

been working to ensure the safety and 

wellbeing of their employees, customers 

and partners as well as their ability to 

support customers and their ongoing 

business requirements. 

In its note to customers, the PCL 

Group wrote: “For a manufacturing 

company to say “we can operate from 

home” is a somewhat ambiguous 

statement but we are contactable for any 

support required.” 

The company added that any orders 

placed will be treated as normal with 

updates on order progression through to 

the estimated time of arrival (ETA). 

The PCL Group Management Team 

said: “PCL Direct Group continues 

to support its customers and partners 

throughout this period of uncertainty. 

We understand we are part of the chain 

that may well be supporting our key 

workers and we are committed to do so in 

whatever capacity we can.” 

To contact the PCL Group for further 

information use the following email 

addresses. For sales and order queries Ian. 

mcintyre@pcl-direct.com, for technical 

support Dave.higgott@pcl-direct.com 

and for any Sindoh enquiries please email 

Andrew.ellis@sindoh.uk.com. 

The PCL Direct Group also recently 

announced that DPD UK had been 

appointed as their new deliver logistics 

partner ensuring deliveries to the 

companies portfolio of UK and EU based 

customers where their products are on 

sale in 28 countries. 

DPD Group is the second-largest 

operator in the courier express parcel 

market in Europe and part of the French 

Le Post Group and has a focus on 

sustainability. 

In the UK, DPD operates more than 

139 electric vehicles on the road and this 

will increase to 600 by the end of 202 and 

making 'clean', emission free deliveries. 

The company said “over the last few 

months we have been making some 

changes, not just to provide the best 

service for our Customers but a green one 

too. Our latest change is our move over to 

DPD to deliver orders, and ho aim to be 

one of the greenest delivery companies on 

this planet”. ■ 


June 2020 

29


GLOBAL Ninestar, G&G, Environment, Standards 

G&G talks environmental compliance 

Today’s consumers are highly aware of how their choices are impacting the world around them so for any brand it is 

important to be environmentally complaint. 

Consumers are demanding more 

environmentally friendly products and 

governments are pushing hard for stricter 

environmental regulations. Sharing 

their product insights, Ninestar said 

“that for its G&G cartridges it conducts 

supplier audits adhering to a number of 

international standards and our in-house 

policies, ensuring they deliver qualified raw 

materials. In the process of turning raw 

materials into finished products, hazardous 

substance control precautions have been 

strictly taken. Its lab also conducts random 

quality inspection for each batch of G&G 

products before shipment.” 

Ninestar explained: “We submit our 

products regularly to world’s leading thirdparty 

Inspection Company, SGS. Our 

tested G&G products are verified by SGS 

that they all comply with Restriction of 

Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS), 

REACH Regulation, and Electromagnetic 

Compatibility (EMC).” 

Higher standards are coming, the Green 

Deal, part of the EU agenda for Europe, 

maps out Europe’s strategy to becoming 

the first climate-neutral continent, by 

proposing several measures to reduce the 

continent’s greenhouse gas emissions and 

increasing biodiversity. 

Effective 1 March 2020, Russia 

introduced stricter controls on a large 

number of product groups including 

telecommunications equipment and 

computers, printers and consumables and 

similar devices. These regulations mirror 

EU directives. 

The Italian Ministry of the Environment 

and the Protection of the Territory and 

the Sea recently published new minimum 

environmental criteria for toner and inkjet 

cartridge supplies and for the rental or lease 

of printers and MFPs. 

You can read the article by scanning the 

QR code. 

Ninestar has passed the IECQ HSPM 

QC 080000 certification that provides 

the requirements needed to demonstrate 

to the international market place that the 

organization has developed, documented, 

and implemented processes for managing 

the production, selection and use of 

electronic components, assemblies, 

processes and related materials in 

accordance with customer, local, national 

and international HSF requirements (like 

Sony Green, Restriction of the Use of 

Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical 

and Electronic Equipment (RoHS), Waste 

Electrical and the Electronic Equipment 

(WEEE) Directives, Registration 

Evaluation Authorization and Restriction 

of Chemicals (REACH), 

China RoHS and other 

local environmental 

regulations) for their scope 

of activity. ■ 

NORTH AMERICA Greentec, E-Waste, Recycling, Anniversary 

Greentec celebrates 25 th anniversary 

Ontario-based IT assets and e-waste processor, Greentec, celebrates a quarter of a century in business in 2020. 

Established in 1995, Greentec has grown 

to become experts in IT asset disposition 

and e-waste recycling. Initially starting 

with just cartridge collection, it expanded 

to other electronic device recycling in 

2005. By 2010, the company moved to a 

83,000 sq. ft. facility and started ITAD 

and e-waste processing 

In a recent interview with Recycling 

Product News, Founder Tony Perrotta 

said that in 2019 114,000 IT devices were 

refurbed and between 2010 and 2019, 

the company recycled 60,000 tonnes 

of e-waste, which according to Perrotta 

shows a growth rate of 30% year-on-year. 

Perrotta explained to Recycling Product 

News: "Our speciality is managing data 

containing devices. For example, we 

manage equipment for entire data centres, 

when a company is going through server 

refreshes or storage and network refreshes, 

as well as data for endpoint devices such 

as desktops, laptops, computers, tablets 

and mobile phones." 

Electronic devices are processed to 

securely destroy any residual data, 

maximise value recovery and minimise 

environmental impacts. Greentec’s 

solutions provide its customers with 

peace-of-mind, knowing that their data 

and electronics recycling are handled in a 

secure and compliant manner. ■ 

To read the full 

interview and find out 

more about Greentec, 

scan here: 



EUROPE Trade Copiers, Queens Awards, Business 

Trade Copiers win Queens Award 

The company has been awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise. 

Founded by Stephen Armistead in 

2002, Trade Copiers is a trader in 

photocopiers and consumables. Based 

in Penrith, Cumbria, on the edge of the 

Lake District in the UK, the company 

has grown to become a local business 

with a worldwide reach. 

From its early beginnings, the company 

has seen the business grow steadily. 

From a single van and 100 square feet 

of rented warehouse space, with a move 

to new premises in 2014, it now has a 

fleet of vehicles, a team of over 44 staff 

and a 25,000 square foot (and growing) 

warehouse. 

With a successful business working 

with dealers and the general public in the 

UK in both the consumable and copier 

markets, it also has a thriving market 

sending containers of used copiers around 

the world, to places such as China, UAE, 

Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and 

Africa. 

In Cumbria reported that Trade Copiers 

“has been given the Queen's Award for 

Enterprise in recognition of its short term 

growth in international trade.” 

Stephen Armistead told In Cumbria: “We 

are absolutely delighted at the recognition. 

We feel immensely proud to be recognised 

as one of our area's top export companies 

and have a great local Cumbrian team." 

At this time, due to COVID-19 

restrictions the team has been furloughed 

but Amistead told In Cumbria he continues 

to stay positive throughout this time. ■ 


June 2020 

31

FEATURE 

Are you in the working from home sector? 

The working from home workforce could double from 5% to 10%. They will all need IT, 

cloud and server connectivity, printers, consumables and security. Here is our take on 

what is needed to work from how you might benefit from this growth market. 

FEATURED 

A R TIC L E 

Working from home- or home-based 

working presents its challenges, but it is a 

growing reality in today’s workplace and 

is likely to double as we adjust to working 

with the COVID-19 coronavirus. 

First question is what is the difference 

between working from home and homebased 

working? Its subtle, but different. 

Our neighbour, Joe is a heating engineer 

and he is home-based. He has his tablet 

and phone and all his work is uploaded to 

his tablet at 4pm each day and any parts he 

needs are delivered to him by 8am the next 

morning. He does his jobs, keeps his tablet 

updated, job planning software works out 

his route and even sends automated texts 

customers telling them when he will arrive. 

If an urgent job comes up, head office can 

see where he is and send him the urgent job. 

He sees his boss at least once a week at one 

or other of his jobs. Working from home is 

doing your office job from home. 

It is not a new concept. In 1979 IBM 

installed terminals in five employees’ 

homes, and while a novel concept by 

1983 about 2,000 IBM employees were 

working remotely. The corporation 

eventually realized that it could save 

millions by selling its signature buildings 

and institutionalising distance work; the 

It is not a new concept. In 1979 IBM installed terminals in 

five employees’ homes, and while a novel concept by 1983 

about 2,000 IBM employees were working remotely. 

number of remote workers ballooned. 

In 2009, an IBM report boasted that “40 

percent of IBM’s some 386,000 employees 

in 173 countries have no office at all.” More 

than 58 million square feet of office space 

had been unloaded, at a gain of nearly $2 

billion. IBM, moreover, wanted to help 

other corporations reap the same officeless 

efficiencies through its consulting services. 

Leading by example was good marketing. * 

What you need: 

Internet 

The internet connection governs anyone’s 

ability to work from home. A slow internet 

connection, copper based phone lines, 

poor 4G mobile all impact on connectivity. 

Even if you have good connectivity, you 

may come up against your ISP’s bandwidth 

throttling. 

Bandwidth throttling is when your ISP 

deliberately slows down your internet 

because you may have reached your 

monthly data cap, or perhaps you’ve 

forgotten to pay a bill. However, ISPs may 

still throttle your bandwidth even with an 

unlimited contract because as the demand 

varies, they cannot uphold the speed in 

your contract. 

The OECD published a report in June 

2019 showing the leading counties for fibre 

optic connections. 

90 

Percentage of fibre connections in total fixed broadband, June 2019 ** 

80 

70 

2019 Q2 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

Korea 

Japan 

Lithuania 

Sweden 

Latvia 

Spain 

Iceland 

Finland 

Norway 

New Zealand 

Portugal 

Luxembourg 

Estonia 

Slovenia 

Denmark 

Slovak Republic 

OECD 

Chile 

Hungary 

Mexico 

Source*: 2017 When working from home doesn’t work – Jerry Useem 

32 Issue 331 June 2020 

2017 Q2 

2015 Q2 

Turkey 

Poland 

Switzerland 

France 

Czech Republic 

Australia 

Netherlands 

United States 

Canada 

Colombia 

Ireland 

Italy 

Germany 

Austria 

United Kingdom 

Israel 

Belgium 

Greece 

Source**: https://www.oecd.org/internet/broadband/broadband-statistics-update.htm


If you are lucky enough to have fibre 

optic then no worries, but assuming your 

internet is reasonably fast and stable, 

here is what you need to work from home 

effectively. 

Remote Desktop 

Assuming you left your office computer 

switched on you might want to access files, 

images or other assets while working from 

home or while you are travelling. To do 

this you will need a good remote desktop 

app and there are a couple of good ones to 

consider. 

Teamviewer 

This is our favourite it is free for personal 

use or starts at €10 per person per month 

for business use. TeamViewer is available 

for Windows, OS X, iOS, Linux, and 

Android. It is easy to set up and does not 

need IT to sort out port forwarding or 

reinventing the firewall settings. And for 

the security minded uses it supports twostep 

authentication. 

Anydesk 

This German software enables has a Home 

Office option ideal for individuals and 

freelancers to connect to your remote 

work computer. You have unattended 

access and remote printing, file transfer 

and the AnyDesk Whiteboard to draw 

simple instructions and the chat feature to 

say even more while collaborating during 

remote connections. Session Recording 

allows you to record the interaction for 

future reference. Prices begins at €8.49 

($9.19) monthly. 

Server Connections 

If you need to hook up to your servers then 

you need to think about these 

hardy options: 

Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) 

offers complete remote administration 

of your systems, including software 

updates. ARD costs $80 (€73.83). 

Microsoft Remote Desktop (RDC) 

offers slightly more limited remote 

access, but is free. 


June 2020 

33

FEATURE 

The basic plan is free, and you can host 

up to 100 participants in a single meeting 

and unlimited one-to-one meetings. The 

downside is that meetings in the basic plan 

are limited to 40 minutes. 

Realtime Communications 

Slack is a hugely popular collaboration tool 

used by many - from remote workers to 

large-scale enterprises - including CBSi. But 

it is more than just a chat app; it is powerful 

and robust in its functionality and 

integrations, allowing you to set reminders, 

keep organized, and even have a little fun. 

Teamwork in Slack happens in channels 

and provides a single place for messaging, 

tools and files and helping everyone save 

time and collaborate together. Channels 

can be divided up by team, project, 

client, or whatever else is relevant to your 

organisation. 

Here is what we like about Slack: Team 

members can join and leave the channels 

as needed, a real bonus and much better 

than unlike lengthy email chains and keep 

conversations on track and…there is a free 

version. 

Mattermost 

It is not Slack, but Mattermost is an opensource, 

private cloud option that actively 

emulates a lot of Slack's functionality and 

pricing starts at $3.25 (€2.99) monthly. 

Microsoft Teams 

Microsoft Teams is the hub for teamwork 

in Office 365. 

You can make video and VOIP calls within 

Teams, direct and group message other 

users, and share work from other 365 apps, 

such as PowerPoint and Excel. All your 

chats, meetings, files and apps live in a 

single workspace. 

Video Chat 

Video is the new email and face to face 

via video means we ate least have to look 

presentable for the video call. Here are 

some video options to consider: 

Zoom came out of nowhere at the start of the pandemic 

and is great if you have big team meetings that include 

lots of remote workers. 

Skype 

We use Skype a lot to pass visuals, texts 

and files between teams and gets busy in 

the run up to going to press. We use it 

for video calls and regular phone calls. 

Its free and it is as good as anything out 

there if you are engaging with up to 3 or 4 

colleagues. 

Skype for business 

Skype for business is the enterprise version 

of Microsoft-owned Skype. Teams and 

Skype are available as part of the Office 365 

Premium bundle. Since we operate in a 

Mac and PC platform, Skype for business 

does not work for us, despite the price tag. 

Zoom 

Zoom came out of nowhere at the start of 

the pandemic and is great if you have big 

team meetings that include lots of remote 

workers. 

The Pro version costs €13.99 ($15.16) per 

month and gives you more features and lifts 

the 40-minute meeting restriction. 

Project Management 

A couple of options to consider for effective 

project management that support remote 

working. 

Trello 

Trello is our favourite project management 

tool; it is simple to use and has great 

operational and task management power. 

At The Recycler it hosts the workflow 

of our news, events, research, features, 

commercial activity and just about 

everything else. 

Trello’s boards, lists, and cards enable you 

to organise and prioritise your projects in 

a fun, flexible, and rewarding way. There 

is a free version that allows you unlimited 

personal boards, cards and lists and a 

maximum file attachment size of 10MB. 

Basecamp 

Probably one of the better-known project 

management platforms, Basecamp's core 

functions include task management, 

messaging & collaboration, file sharing, 

scheduling, reporting, and a universal 

search function that makes everything 

easily and quickly retrievable. 

But here is the winner if you have five 

or more remote workers. The Basecamp 

is price is $99 (€91.35) per month with 

unlimited users. 

Monday 

Monday is a Kanban-based alternative 

to Basecamp. The cloud-based project 

management platforms is aimed at small 

and mid-sized teams and uses labels to 

clearly identify who is working on what 

when. The basic version of the service is 

€39 ($42.26) per month for five users. 

Printing 

Not the sexiest of homeworking topics, but 

the cost of consumables can be a barrier 

to effective homeworking. Ensure you use 

technology to manage the printer. We use 

the Nubeprint app to monitor our printers 

and we can use it to order supplies. 



Other Considerations 

It is not just about the technology, 

the reality is the more people you have 

working from home the larger the security 

risk, your IT team need to know and 

manage the risks. 

And do not forget confidentiality. It is as 

simple as locking your computer when 

taking a break and avoiding your plans, 

personal information or the company 

accounts from being seen by third parties. 

Outsource 

You can outsource the homeworking 

technology if all of this is beyond you (we 

did). Companies like UK-based DMC 

Canotec have a range of options. 

The Employee 

So, you have all the technology in place, 

but do not forget the employee who is your 

most important asset. Employees are the 

most important part of your business and 

number one priority is for the health and 

wellbeing of employees if they are going to 

work from home. Here is a quick checklist: 

Be aware 

Loneliness can be an issue because working 

from home can feel unstructured and 

isolating. In a 2019 study by online brand 

development agency Buffer, they found 

that loneliness was the second-most 

reported challenge, one experienced by 19% 

of respondents. 

Ramp up the communications 

First off everyone in your team needs to 

know what the plan is and what is expected 

of them. If they are working from home for 

the first time it can be isolating. Make sure 

you are in regular contact with everyone. 

Set up a short 10 minutes or so start and 

end of the day conference call to make sure 

everyone is in the picture and are all on 

task. The goal is to ensure they valued, and 

you empower them to engage and deliver. 

Using video calls like Skype and Zoom are 

great tools. One firm has set up a Skype 

lunch call where everyone comes online, 

eats their lunch and keeps up to date with 

what’s going on. Just one rule during the 

Skype lunch, no work talk. 

It is a proper job 

It is so tempting to lounge around the 

house in your pyjamas, we have all done 

it. But you need to ensure everyone 

understands Rule #1: When working from 

home treat it like the job it is. Get up, have 

a shower and get dressed and you can face 

the world. There really is nothing worse 

that someone taking a Skype call and you 

see yourself on screen and you are not ready 

to face the world, or your other remote 

working colleagues. 

Work is work and home life is home life, 

but it is so easy for the two to cross over. 

As a leader your role is to keep them 

motivated. If they have domestic chores 

or issues, make time for them to be 

accomplished in a structured way. While 

the office environment might be 9-5, it 

doesn’t follow that all tasks have to be done 

by 5pm. They just need to be done. Suggest 

that instead of getting everything done by 

5pm, it is done for 9am the next day. Then 

there is harmony between the home and 

work conundrum. 

The off switch 

Encourage your staff to turn the laptop and 

company phone off at the end of the day 

and transition out of work mode into home 

mode. If your staff are self-isolating, they 

can not go for a walk or a run, but there is a 

wealth of advice on the internet about how 

to relax. Me, I go and visit Nick, or 

“Nasty Nick” as I call him. Nick is a 200 

kilo running machine and a quick 15 

minute workout is great to turn work off 

and home on. ■ 

Unused and unwanted 

empty cartridges? 

OHANA 

TECHNOLOGY 

We can solve your problem. It is a 3 step process: 

1. 2. 3. 

Contact us to arrange 

delivery, either by phone 

or email. 

We sort your cartridges, extracting 

everything of value and arranging the 

correct recycling of everything else.* 

* Cartridges of value will be sold on your behalf 

through our global network. 

Settle up with you and send 

you all the waste transfer 

documents for your records. 

To find out more, call Terry Bridgeman on +44 1328 633013, or email him at info@ohanatl.com 


June 2020 

35

FEATURE 

Pelikan set to challenge the OEM space 

Pelikan announces a range of Bio Based reusable cartridges and will be positioned 

25% cheaper for the end user compared to buying a new original OEM cartridge. 

FEATURED 

A R TIC L E 

Print-rite, owners of the 182-year-old 

Pelikan brand has launched a range of bio 

based reusable cartridges creating a new 

category of product which is completely 

game-changing in terms of environmental 

impact. 

Steve Weedon, CEO at Pelikan and Print- 

Rite Europe explained: “This new Bio 

Based cartridge is made from reusable bio 

plastics with a Bio based toner made of 48% 

organic materials, all of which is certified by 

the TUV accreditation. The new cartridges 

have a lower C02 footprint and all the 

components can be recovered for reuse or 

remanufacturing but if they are thrown 

away and effectively end up in landfill, they 

will start to decompose at around 90-180 

days at 16°C (60°F) and 90% humidity.” 

Commenting on the print quality, Weedon 

responded “Because of the bio-based 

ingredients in the toner the print density is 

actually improved and there is no sacrifice 

at all in terms of print output performance. 

The print performance is quite outstanding 

scoring 1.54 on the solid area density test 

and with a very low background test of 0.5.” 

Bio-based Plastic: What does that mean? 

The Pelikan cartridge toner is reported to 

have 48% bio-based content and 57% for the 

bio-based plastics. The 3D HUBS website 

explains: “The bio-based plastic is made of 

PLA (Polylactic Acid) is a biodegradable 

(under the correct conditions) 

thermoplastic derived from renewable 

resources such as corn starch or sugarcane. 

It is one of the most popular bioplastics, 

used for many applications ranging 

from plastic cups to medical implants. 

The other plastic used in the cartridge is 

ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), 

a common thermoplastic well known in 

the injection molding industry. It is used 

for applications such as LEGO, electronic 

housings and automotive bumper parts.” 

In making the PLA plastic Weedon said 

“We use organic materials like coffee grind, 

soya, sugars, starch, plants and wood. 

As a thermoplastic, it has the characteristic 

that at a low temperature the cartridge 

plastic can be returned to a usable 

thermoplastic amorphous liquid that 

can be reused. And during that process 

no toxic gasses are given off.” 

The BBC Science Focus website says 

“Bioplastics made of cornstarch and other 

plant-based materials are a better bet. 

They give off CO2 as they decompose, but 

they’re merely expelling carbon locked in 

by the plant matter that originally formed 

them. The net effect on the environment is 

therefore close to zero.” 

The European Bioplastics website 

states “There is no common agreement 

on a minimal value yet due to varying 

regional regulations in Europe. In Japan 

an industry-wide commitment sets the 

“biomass margin” at “25 percent renewable 

material”. According to the USDA Biopreferred 

Programme, “the minimum share 

of renewable material ranges from 7 to 95 

percent” depending on defined product 

category rules.” 

Reusable too: According to Pelikan, “Once 

used, the cartridge can be remanufactured 

using standard components just like the 

OEM used cartridge. Like all Print-Rite 

Patent Safe Cartridges, it is not designed 

as a Single Use Cartridge (SUC). If the 

cartridge ends up in landfill, the bio plastic 

will start to decompose at 90 - 180 days at 

60°F and 90% humidity.” 

Is there a demand for 

bio-plastics? 

Again the European Bioplastics assesses 

the demand for bioplastics “represent about 

one percent of the more than 359 million 

tonnes of plastic produced annually. 

But as demand is rising, and with more 

sophisticated biopolymers, applications, 

and products emerging, the market for 

bioplastics is continuously growing and 

diversifying. 

According to the latest market data 

compiled by European Bioplastics in 

cooperation with the research institute 

nova-Institute, global bioplastics 

production capacity is set to increase 

from around 2.11 million tonnes in 

2019 to approximately 2.43 million 

tonnes in 2024.” 

Global production capacities of bioplastics 

Bio-based/non-biodegradable Biodegradable Forecast Total Capacity 

Source: European Bioplastics, nova-Institute (2019) 



New and innovative biopolymers, such as 

bio-based PP (polypropylene) and PHAs 

(polyhydroxyalkanoates) show the highest 

relative growth rates. In 2019, bio-based 

PP entered the market on a commercial 

scale with a strong growth potential due 

to the widespread application of PP in a 

wide range of sectors. Their production 

capacities are predicted to almost sextuple 

by 2024. PHAs are an important polymer 

family, whose production capacities are 

estimated to more than triple in the next 

five years. These polyesters are 100 percent 

bio-based and biodegradable, and feature 

a wide array of physical and mechanical 

properties depending on their chemical 

composition. 

What about the OEMs? 

In 2010 Canon and Toray Industries 

announced the successful development of 

the industry's largest exterior part made 

using bio-based plastic. The part, for use 

in Canon multifunction office systems 

for production printing, also achieves the 

world's highest level of flame retardance. 

The plant-derived bio-based plastics, 

which curb increases in CO2 and decrease 

The Pelikan cartridge toner is reported 

to have 48% bio-based content 

and 57% for the bio-based plastics. 

the consumption of oil resources, offer 

material properties that effectively reduce 

environmental burden. But because of 

the technological difficulties involved in 

realizing the moldability and other flow 

characteristics demanded of large-scale 

parts, while at the same time satisfying 

external appearance requirements and high 

mechanical strength and toughness criteria, 

bio-based plastics had proven difficult to 

adopt for use in exterior parts, particularly 

due to the high level of flame retardance 

required of such parts. 

HP have been looking at bio-based plastics 

since the turn of the century and is (or was) 

one of their environmental goals. Rumour 

has it there have been a few problems along 

the way. John Frey, who chaired Hewlett 

Packard’s environmental strategies council 

said at the time “The first problem we had 

was the polylacticacid (PLA) we used came 

from genetically modified crops, and that 

never could have been used in Europe. The 

other problem is that they weren’t really 

heat stable. I took one of the pilots to a 

meeting in downtown Houston and then 

left it in my car. When I came back, the 

whole shell had caved in around the printer 

mechanism. ■ 

Specialists in the Purchase 

of Unused OEM Toner for 

over 10 years 

Purchasing 

WE BUY SURPLUS UNUSED PRINTER TONERS & INKS 

Find us on: 

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• One of the UK's largest independent 

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The Jolly Savage Ltd www.thejollysavage.co.uk +44(0) 1462 605050 admin@thejollysavage.co.uk 


June 2020 

37

PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY 

ASIA Ninestar, G&G Reborn, New Products 

Ninestar launches G&G Reborn and more 

The range of 100% remanufactured solutions is for use in copiers under the G&G Reborn brand and targeted 

at organisations and channels where quality is essential, and prices are sensitive. 

Ninestar today announced the launch of 

an industry-leading range of cost-friendly 

remanufactured solutions for use in 

copiers under a new G&G Reborn brand. 

The G&G Reborn range is targeted at 

significant copier users, managed print 

and other contracted channels. The range 

is ideal for local, regional and national 

governments, the finance, education, 

telecommunications, sectors where that 

are sensitive to price but require OEM 

like quality. 

Speaking on the G&G YouTube channel, 

Veronica, from G&G Labs confirmed 

that the G&G Reborn range is specifically 

designed to meet user printing demands. 

Delivering OEM-like printing experience 

and quality, but without the OEM price tag. 

It is all reused too. 

In a follow-up announcement, Ninestar 

confirmed that the Reborn product 

range utilises the empty OEM cartridge. 

The chip is an OEM chip that has been 

fully reset. The toner powder is itself 

remanufactured and designed to overcome 

backgrounding, vertical lines, streaks, 

fusion or other print issues like key 

component wear and spillage and damage 

to copiers. No details of the proprietary 

process were disclosed. 

The G&G Reborn remanufactured range 

of cartridges is for is initially use in the 

following Ricoh machines: 

Ricoh MP C2003/2004/2503/2504 

Ricoh MP C3003/3004/3503/3504 

Ricoh MP C4503/4504/5503/6003/6004 

Ricoh IM C2500/IM C2000 

Ricoh IM C3000/C3500 

Ricoh IM C4500/C5500/C6000 

Instead of using aftermarket chips, G&G 

Reborn will utilise reset OEM chips. 

Veronica, from G&G Labs confirmed 

that the G&G Reborn range is specifically 

designed to meet user printing demands 

and explains why a reset OEM chip is used 

in this range. 

G&G said in its announcement: “Printer 

manufacturers’ using firmware upgrades 

to lock out aftermarket cartridges (chips) 

is not even new to the imaging industry. 

It’s becoming increasingly common. For 

copier users who pursue the top product 

quality and reliability, apparently they do 

not expect any printing failures caused by 

the blocked aftermarket chips.” 

In such a case, using reset OEM chips 

can fix the problem, G&G explained. For 

G&G Reborn no original parameters and 

functional characteristics of the OEM 

chips are changed but the chip information 

is restored during the reset process. 

G&G also announced that it will be 

using OEM empties in its G&G Reborn 

range of 100% remanufactured copier 

cartridges. 

Ninestar explained; “There are three 

types of cartridge shells available in today’s 

aftermarket: cloned OEM shells, patent 

designed shells and remanufactured OEM 

shells (also known as remanufactured 

OEM empties).” 

In one of its latest announcements 

Ninestar said it is “first-to-market” 

with its latest replacement solution for 

HP W1105A/W2060A series products. 

Ninestar said: “We are pleased 

to announce that Ninestar replacement 

solutions for HP W1105A/W2060A series 

products are available!” The company 

stated it is “first-to-market” with its new 

replacement solution which includes “selfdeveloped 

patent technology” and comes 

with “outstanding printing performance”. 

The latest launch includes replacement 

monochrome cartridges for use in HP 

Laser MFP 135a/135w/137fnw devices. 

These come with page yields of 1,000 

pages. 

Ninestar also announced replacement 

colour cartridges for use HP Colour 

Laser 150a/150w/150nw and HP Colour 

Laser MFP 178nw/179fnw devices. These 

cartridges come with page yields of 1,000 

for the black cartridge and 700 for the 

colour cartridges. 

Hot on the heals of HP’s global launch 

of the Neverstop laser printer series, G&G 

has launched “Never Stops” their first-tomarket 

patented solution for the new HP 

Neverstop printer series. 

You can’t accuse HP of being fast 

bringing a refillable 'tank' printer to the 

market. Just a year after the soft launch in 

Asia the Neverstop range of printers have 

in the last few weeks reached the European 

and US markets. Almost days after the 

printers hit the western markets, G&G has 

launched “Never Stops” the first-to-market 

patented solution for the HP Neverstop 

printer series. 

The G&G Never Stops cartridge has the 

same yield of 2,500 pages as the OEM and 

has a self-developed chip that included 

accurate page counting. The chip is 100% 

compatible with the OEM machines. The 

replacement cartridge utilises a G&G fine 

toner with uniform particle sizes. ■ 

For the above-mentioned 

cartridges or any other 

of Ninestar’s product 

range, please visit G&G by 

scanning the barcode. 



EUROPE Gm Technology, Cartridges, Remanufacturing 

ASIA CET, Cartridges, Aftermarket 

Firmware: GM Technology 

has Ricoh solution 

GM Technology updates the market on their response to the recent firmware 

update by the Japanese OEM, Ricoh. 

On 9 March of this year GM 

Technology detected a firmware update 

causing problems with compatible 

cartridges in Ricoh IM C series 

machines and some MP C series models. 

GM Technology immediately 

conducted more research and verified 

that the new update does not affect its 

remanufactured toner cartridges. 

With its own unique reset technology, 

the company can reuse original chips 

and return them to their original factory 

condition. 

This allows GM Technology to offer 

three solutions: 

1. Remanufactured toner cartridges 

with original or aftermarket toner 

fitted with an OEM reset-chip. With 

this solution, we can guarantee 

an OEM equivalent quality and 

operation with a significant 

environmental benefit. 

2. Eco Cartridges: empty 

toner cartridges, cleaned and 

reconditioned with an OEM 

reset-chip in boxes of 50 units. 

The cartridges comply with all the 

necessary OEM patents and are an 

economic and ecologic solution 

for those companies that want to 

remanufacture. 

3. Reset chips and reset machines: 

We can supply large quantities of 

reset OEM chips, as well as our 

resetting machine with our own 

technology based on a credit system. 

GM Technology added: “With the full 

range of our products we offer partner 

programs with exclusive prices, rebates 

of up to 10% or the possibility of product 

customisation, among other benefits.” ■ 

For more information on the abovelisted 

and other GM 

Technology products 

available, please visit the 

company’s website by 

scanning the QR code. 

CET launches 

latest products 

CET Group Co.,Ltd. has 

announced its latest addition to its 

product portfolio. 

The company has launched a new 

CMYK set of replacement cartridges 

for use in Kyocera M8124cidn and 

Kyocera M8130cidn devices. 

The company has also added 

patented replacement toner 

cartridges for use in the Canon 

ImageRunner Advance C5535i, Canon 

ImageRunner Advance C5540i, 

Canon ImageRunner Advance C5550i 

and the Canon ImageRunner Advance 

C5560i, to its product portfolio. 

In November last year, CET 

expanded its replacement Kyocera 

range with the addition of feed tires 

for use in Kyocera TASKalfa 1800, 

1801, 2200, 2201, 2010, 2011, 2210 

and Kyocera TASKalfa 2211 devices. 

Charge roller cleaning rollers were also 

launched for use in these machines. ■ 

For more information 

on the above and more 

products from CET, 

scan here: 


June 2020 

39


EUROPE Schreiner ProTech, Label, Microfont 

Microfont: A new anti-counterfeiting solution 

Schreiner ProTech has introduced an anti-counterfeiting solution featuring the application of a customised microfont 

on colour laser film (CLF) nameplates. 

Unlike many anticounterfeiting solutions, 

the microfont system incurs no additional 

costs because all required infrastructure, 

namely the film and the laser equipment, 

is already available on customers‘ standard 

laser printing line operations. 

Nearly indiscernible with the naked eye, 

the microfont can be read only under a 

microscope at 40-fold magnification. Its 

exceedingly tiny size is made possible by 

an extremely thin (less than 1 micron) 

laser-sensitive film layer; by comparison, 

conventional laser films have a layer 

thickness of 50 microns. This minimised 

coating thickness makes it possible to 

maximise font resolution, resulting in 

enhanced microscopic delicacy. 

Product piracy continues to be pervasive 

worldwide. Just in Schreiner ProTech’s 

home country of Germany alone, 

counterfeiting causes annual losses of €54 

billion ($58 billion), according to a survey 

by the private-sector Cologne Institute for 

Economic Research (IW) commissioned 

by the Initiative New Social Market 

Economy (INSM). “One in ten companies 

in Germany has been the victim of product 

and brand piracy at least once in the past 

five years,” said IW expert Oliver Koppel. 

Unfortunately, product protection 

solutions often involve additional costs 

and are at risk of being faked themselves. 

Schreiner ProTech’s microfont solution 

solves for both of these issues by employing 

a combination of existing infrastructure 

and difficulty of duplication. 

Even if the microfont is detected – itself 

an unlikelihood with the unaided eye – 

counterfeiters would be hard-pressed to 

copy it because they lack a key component 

of the variable marking system: Colour 

Laser Film, which is not freely accessible. 

In addition, its complementary Nd:YAG 

(neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum 

garnet) laser system is difficult to obtain by 

counterfeiters. 

Based in the Munich area of Germany, 

Schreiner ProTech is a global leader in the 

development and manufacture of innovative 

functional labels with value-added benefits 

that continue to set the standard for 

engineering-based industries. Schreiner 

ProTech is a certified development partner 

and system supplier to the automotive, 

electronics, and mechanical engineering 

industries, producing innovative product 

solutions for industrial marking purposes 

and authenticity protection. 

Its film-based functional components 

help make processes leaner and optimise 

costs. For more than 65 years, the familyowned 

Schreiner Group has been providing 

specialty labels and label printing services 

to a variety of industries, and today services 

customers in more than 20 

countries. ■ 

For more information, 

please scan here: 

ASIA Utec, Print-Rite, Refilling Station, Toner Tank, HP Neverstop 

Utec introduces new refill technology 

Addressing the self-refill market, Utec has announced new drilling stations, refilling stations and portioned 

ink bags and launched replacement toner tanks for HP Neverstop. 

These new drilling and refilling stations 

are for refilling various HP and Canon inkjet 

cartridges, using portioned “high quality 

ink…”. Various packs are available which 

include ink packs, drilling stations and refilling 

stations for the various printer models. 

Utec said that these refill stations are enabling 

users to “refill your cartridges multiple times” 

and users can “refill your own cartridge safely, 

at home, during the coronavirus pandemic!” 

Utec describes them as “clean and easy to 

refill” and said that its “ink bag design with 

fewer injection parts reduces environmental 

impact”. 

One of the company’s latest product 

announcement was a universal compatible 

toner tank that is usable worldwide in HP 

Neverstop devices. 

Utec said it now offers a universal, globally 

usable compatible toner tank for use in HP 

Neverstop Laser 1001nw and HP Neverstop 

Laser MFP 1201n/1202nw devices, replacing 

HP Neverstop W1143A/W1103A/W1108A 

toner tanks. 

Utec added that the compatible toner tanks 

come with technology that prevents printer 

firmware updates and offers “smooth printing 

during whole lifecycle”. ■ 

For more information on 

the above-mentioned newly 

launched products and 

more, please scan the QR 

code here: 



ASIA Apex, Chips, Remanufacturing 

Apex showcases latest solutions 

The company has released an updated solution for Sharp MX60 Series, after 

the company found a firmware update was released, replacement chips for use 

in HP W1106A/W1110A/W2060A series cartridges and its “first-to-market” 

replacement chips for use with HP W1143A series cartridges. 

Sharp released a new firmware 04.02.72 

for printers used with MX60 series 

cartridges in April 2020, causing some 

errors with replacement chips which are 

no longer recognised by printers such as 

MX-2651, MX-3071, etc. The printer 

prompts an "Install the toner cartridge" 

error message. 

Apex’s updated solution for Sharp 

MX60 series cartridges can be applied 

to old and newly produced printers and 

models which use the same technology. 

The company said: “Apex will continue 

to monitor firmwares and provide 

customers with high-quality solutions in 

the first time!” 

This latest solution is available for use in 

Sharp MX-B355W/B455W/MX-B350P, 

MX-B450P/MX-B350W/MX-B450W, 

Sharp MX -2651/3051/3551/4051/5051/ 

6051/3071/3571/4071, Sharp MX3070/ 

MX3570/MX5070N/ 

MX6070N/MX3050N/MX3550N/ 

MX4050N/MX4070N/MX5050/ 

MX6050 and Sharp MX-C4081R/ 

C3581R/C3081R/C5081D/C6081D 

devices. 

In May 2019, HP introduced the entrylevel 

monochrome laser printer 136w 

series and colour Laser 179fnw series at 

the 2019 HP Innovative Commercial 

Printer Summer New Product Launch 

Conference. In addition to traditional 

printing, scanning and copying 

capabilities, the easy mobile printing 

function allows customers to work 

anytime, anywhere. It is mainly suitable 

for small and medium-sized enterprises 

and home users. 

Apex said its “first-to-market” 

replacement chips offer “consistent 

performance” and are “easy to install in 

recycled cartridges”. 

Now available are replacement chips 

for use in HP Laser 103a, HP Laser MFP 

131a/133np, HP Laser 107a/107w, HP 

Laser MFP 135a/135w/137fnw, HP Laser 

108a/ 108w, HP Laser 138pn /138pnw/ 

138p, HP Laser MFP 136w/136a /136nw, 

HP Colour Laser 150a/150w/ 150nw and 

HP Colour Laser MFP 178nw /179fnw 

devices. 

Apex has expanded its product 

further with replacement chips for use 

in HP LaserJet MFP M437n/437dn 

/437nda/439n /439dn/439nda and HP 

LaserJet MFP M42525n/42525dn / 

M42523n/ 42523d devices. 

Also now available are replacement chips 

for use in Xerox B1022/B1025 and Xerox 

B210/ B205/B215 devices. 

The company also expanded its 

replacement chip range for use in Samsung 

devices with the addition of replacement 

chips for use in Samsung SL-M2030/ 

M2035/2035w/2085, Samsung SL- 

C515/ C565FW and Samsung SL-C510/ 

C510W/C513 /C513W/ C563FW/C563W 

machines. 

In 2019, HP also released the LaserJet 

Enterprise M856 series printers with 

JetIntelligence toner cartridges, designed 

for superb colour output. HP describes 

these machines great for use to print high 

quality, premium marketing materials and 

professional documents with consistently 

brilliant colour. 

Apex’s latest replacement chip solution is 

“first-to-market”, comes with “consistent 



The company said: “Apex helps you seize 

the market opportunities by providing 

you with the first-to-market replacement 

chips solution for HP W2010A/ 

W9020MC series. You're welcome to 

contact us and ask for product samples!” 

These latest replacement chips are for use 

in HP Color LaserJet Enterprise M856dn/ 

856x, HP Color LaserJet Enterprise MFP 

M776dn/ 776z/zs and HP Color LaserJet 

Managed E75245dn devices. 

In March 2020, HP launched the 

Neverstop Laser 1000/MFP 1200 series 

in the United States, United Kingdom, 

and Canada. With its toner reload kit, this 

series helps you get back to printing in 

seconds, suitable for SME customers. 

Apex said that its “first-to-market” 

replacement chips are offering “consistent 



These latest replacement chips 

are for use in HP Neverstop Laser 

1000n/1001nw, HP Neverstop Laser 

MFP 1200nw and HP Neverstop Laser 

MFP 1202w/1202nw devices. The 

replacement chips for the cartridge come 

with page yields of 2,500 

and the replacement 

drum chips come with 

page yields of 20,000. ■ 


June 2020 

41


ASIA Gikar, Chips, Innovation, Solutions 

Gikar announces its latest solution 

Gikar released a chip without battery for use on Brother TN243/TN247 

cartridges. 

Gikar announced the availability of its 

new special replacement chip for use on 

Brother TN243/TN247 and TN223/ 

TN227 cartridges, which Gikar says can 

maximise the stability of the toner cartridge 

printing performance and can enhance the 

stability of the toner cartridge during the 

chip-install-process and transportation. 

Gikar commented on the launch: “A 

chip without a battery is great advantage 

for customers. Especially, for anyone who 

has ever experienced the inconvenience of 

unstable on-chip batteries, for instance, 

cartridges cannot be recognised by the 

printer due to battery moved or cartridges 

cannot air to customers because of a battery 

on the chip. 

“Now, customers will be thrilled with 

this creative chip and they no longer have 

ASIA Mito, Cartridges, Aftermarket 

this problem. Because without battery, the 

chip will be more stable and when workers 

install the chip into the cartridge, it would 

reduce the battery movement risky. As a 

result, the customer's printing experience 

will be much better.” 

“It also has the added benefit of being easy 

to transport without batteries. Lithium 

battery is very strict and easy to cause 

problems in transportation. Mostly time, 

it’s difficult to be shipping accepted by 

airlines. Without a battery, it will be very 

convenient, and people can choose the 

mode of transportation they want,” Gikar 

concluded. 

These latest replacement chips without 

battery for TN243/TN247 and TN223/ 

TN227 cartridges are immediately 

available. These cartridges are compatible 

with Brother HL-L3210CW/ 

L3230CDW/L3270CDW, MFC- 

L3710CW/L3730CDN/L3750CDW/ 

L3770CDW and DCP-L3510CDW/ 

L3550CDW/ L3517CDW 

printers. ■ 

To request samples, and 

for more information, 

scan here: 

Mito launches latest solutions 

The company has announced its latest new product launch of a replacement 

CMYK set of cartridges for use in various Kyocera TASKalfa devices. 

Mito announced its latest solution 

of a CMYK set of replacement cartridges 

for use in Kyocera TASKalfa 306ci, 307ci 

series machines. 

The company took to linked in to make 

the announcement and said: “A Smart 

Choice for Small and Medium Business 

(SMB). Small packaging saves shipping 

space and freight.” 

Earlier this month, Mito’s product range 

saw the addition of its latest replacement 

solution of cartridges for use in HP Color 

LaserJet Enterprise M652dn, M653dh, 

M653dn and M653x devices. The CMYK 

set of replacement cartridges comes with 

page yields of 27,000 for the black cartridge 

and 22,000 for the colour cartridges. 

And back in January Mito announced 

its newly introduced second generation 

patented solution for use in HP Color 

LaserJet Pro M254nw, HP Color 

LaserJet Pro M255nw, HP Color 

LaserJet Pro M254dw and HP Color 

LaserJet Pro M255dw devices. ■ 

For more information on the 

above-mentioned products 

as well as Mito’s full range 

of products, please visit 

Mito’s website here: 

EUROPE DMC Canotec, The Agile 

Toolkit, Home Office 

DMC Canotec 

introduces “The 

Agile Toolkit” 

The company has introduced 

“The Agile Toolkit”, solutions to 

support digital transformation and 

home working. 

DMC Canotec explained that 

many customers who had either not 

considered remote working or had not 

planned to roll tools and solutions out 

this year are now looking at how they 

can empower their staff and ensure they 

feel comfortable and safe when they do 

return to work. 

Technologies that would take 

months to be adopted are now being 

implemented within days. The lessons 

learnt and the solutions implemented 

today could radically change how they 

do business in the future and if they are 

able to continue doing business. 

Solutions included in “The Agile 

Toolkit” include Hybrid Mail (Print 

and post outbound mail while working 

remotely), ScanPOD Bulk Scanning 

and Digital Mailroom (securely and 

efficiently share your paper-based 

documents), Desktop Document 

Distribution (distribute inbound 

mail to users quickly and efficiently), 

Inbound Mail and Digital Distribution, 

Digital Document Archiving, Cloud 

Document Management, PDF Editing 

and Conversion, Homeworker Print 

and Scan Bundles as well as Secure 

Print and Remote Release (Release 

print jobs in the office while working 

remotely). 

DMC Canotec added: “Now more 

than ever companies need to align 

with trusted partners who can provide 

industry tested solutions quickly and 

efficiently. Investing in future proof 

solutions now, could be the difference 

between the success or failure of your 

business during and after these difficult 

times which is why we are here to guide 

and support you.” ■ 

To find out more 

about DMC Canotec’s 

“The Agile Toolkit”, 

scan here: 



EUROPE Katun, New Products, Remanufacturing 

Katun introduces new products 

Katun North America and Europe have introduced a remanufactured drum unit, waste toner container and colour toner 

cartridges. 

Katun Corporation announced the 

introduction of several high-quality 

products like the latest Katun Performance 

colour toner cartridge set for use in Ricoh 

MP C501-series machines. Katun said 

that its cartridges provide excellent colour 

reproduction, outstanding print quality, 

OEM-equivalent yields and OEMequivalent 

performance. 

The company added: “This product 

has been tested and approved in Katun’s 

Research and Development laboratory 

in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to ensure 

it meets Katun’s high image quality and 

performance standards.” 

The remanufactured drum unit launched 

is for use in Canon ImageRUNNER 

Advance C3300/C3500-series devices, and 

offer “consistent performance, cost savings 

and easy installation – plus remanufactured 

drum units are environmentally friendly.” 

Katun’s growing range of waste toner 

containers now includes the waste toner 

container for use in Kyocera Mita Taskalfa 

6500 I-series machines, which the company 

said is enabling dealers to significantly 

reduce their costs on these popular 

applications. 

Katun Europe announced the 

introduction of two new replacement 

colour toner sets and a drum unit chip in 

Europe. 

Dealers servicing Kyocera machines will 

be pleased to learn Katun has introduced 

Katun Performance colour toner 

cartridges for use in Kyocera TASKalfa 

350/351CI-series devices. Katun explained 

that this toner cartridge set provides 

OEM-equivalent yields, excellent colour 

reproduction and consistent, reliable 

performance. 

Katun confirmed that these products 

have been manufactured in facilities that 

have earned the ISO 9001:2015 quality 

management system certificate and the ISO 

14001:2015 environmental management 

system certificate. 

Katun is also introducing a colour toner 

set for use in Ricoh IM C4500/5500-series 

devices. These Katun Access products, the 

company explained, provide dealers with 

full compatibility, cost savings and reliable 

performance. 

The newly introduced Katun Performance 

drum chips for use in Canon iR Advance 

4525/4535-series machines are also now 

available at significant cost savings. 

Katun added: “Why buy from Katun? 

Well as an ETIRA (European Toner and 

Inkjet Remanufacturers Association) 

member we are committed to providing the 

highest quality remanufactured products, 

preventing used product from going to 

landfill and helping the environment. We 

apply strict testing to all our products, 

ensuring they are of OEM-comparable 

quality, or in some cases, even better! This 

means we can supply great quality products 

and you can make substantial cost-savings!” 

Katun products may be ordered by email, 

phone or via the Katun Online Catalogue 

– the one-stop Internet resource that 

allows registered customers to locate and 

order thousands of Katun products while 

viewing real-time information about their 

orders and accounts. ■ 

To find out which 

products are now available 

in your market, customers 

can access the Katun 

Online Catalogue at: 

EUROPE OWA, Armor, Cartridges, Inkjet 

Armor expands OWA inkjet range 

The French remanufacturer has expanded its OWA business inkjet range with 

inkjet cartridges for use in various HP devices. 

The OWA business inkjet range was 

expanded with a full CMYK set of 

replacement cartridges for use in HP 

PageWide Enterprise Color MFP 586dn, 

HP PageWide Enterprise Color MFP 

586f, HP PageWide Enterprise Color 

Flow MFP 586z, HP PageWide Enterprise 

Color 556dn and HP PageWide 

Enterprise Color 556xh devices. The 

black cartridge boasts a page yield of 

15,000 and the CMY cartridges come 

with page yields of 13,000 pages. 

Also available are higher yield versions 

of the above cartridges which come with 

page yields of 20,000 for the black and 

16,000 for the colour cartridges. 

The OWA product range saw further 

additions of replacement inkjet cartridges 

for use in HP PageWide Pro 552 and 577 

Printer series devices, which come with 

page yields of 23,000 for the black and 

17,000 for the colour cartridges. 

In May, the company will also release 

a replacement 603 XL Epson cartridge 

model, suitable for many small office 

or home office printers. "Beyond the 

upward market trends linked to current 

circumstances such as the first days 

following the announcement of lockdown 

measures, inkjet printing among 

individuals is doing well. It was therefore 

only a matter of time before we produced 

a 603 XL Epson model. This has now 

been achieved, in compliance with the 

high environmental and quality standards 

that characterise Armor Group products 

of course.” explained Gerwald van der 

Gijp, Managing Director of Armor Office 

Printing. ■ 

For more information on Armor’s 

cartridge range or any 

other OWA products, visit 

Armor by scanning the 

QR code here: 


June 2020 

43

MARKETPLACE 

TONER MANUFACTURER 

COLLECTOR 

COLLECTOR 

CBC (Europe) GmbH 

toner@cbc-europe.com 

Tel: +49 211 530670 

www.cbc-europe.com 

FBO Organisation, S.L. 

fbo@fbo-org.com 

Tel: +34 936724863 

www.fbo-org.com 

LVL 

bp.sales@lvlcartridge.com 

Tel: +33 251709249 

www.lvl.fr 

REMANUFACTURER 

RESELLER 


wta Carsten Weser GmbH 

info@wta-suhl.de 

Tel: +49 3681 4529710 

www.wta-suhl.de 

Copyclic 

info@copyclic.com 

Tel: +33 01 60 78 78 78 

www.copyclic.com 

Integral GmbH 

info@integral-international.de 

TEL: + 49 (0) 28 33 60 60 

www.integral-international.de 

MARKET INTELLIGENCE 

CARTRIDGE CLEANING SYSTEMS 

SUPPLIER 

LightWords Imaging 

admin@lightwords.co.uk 

Tel: +44 1270 878850 

www.lightwordsimaging.com 

Futor Cleaning System AG 

info@futorag.ch 

+41 716800549 

www.futorag.com 

TOKO Srl 

toko@toko.ro 

Tel: +40212327270 

www.toko.ro 

SUPPLIER 

BROKER AND RECYCLER 


Freckles Ltd 

info@freckles.bg 

Tel: +359 2 955 5560 

www.freckles.bg 

The Greener Side 

info@greener-side.co.uk 

Tel: +44 1427 700 700 

www.greener-side.co.uk 

Primedia Products 

tmiller@primediamicr.com 

Tel: +1 304-277-2050 

www.primediamicr.com 


Contact us to advertise here: t.01993 899800 e. info@therecycler.com 

Airbags for Toner Cartridges 

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repacking toner cartridges 

• Universal and reusable 

• Fast, free delivery throughout the EU 

• European stocks at affordable prices 

• Terms available 

Visit our new webstore now: 

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ETIRA membership benefits include: 

Meeting new clients and partners at our 

network meetings! 

A strong fight against clever chips, unfair 

patents, waste transport rules etc.! 

PR-work to tell the world about remanufactured 

cartridges and why they are good for both 

consumers and the environment! 

Promotion of top-quality remanufacturing 

(standardisation)! 

Join our business Code of Conduct, and sell 

more cartridges thanks to our logo! 

Meeting 60 top remanufacturers already 

members of ETIRA... 

ETIRA brings the remanufacturing Industry 

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Haydnlaan 13, 4837 CS Breda, 

The Netherlands Tel: + 31 6 414 614 63 

info@etira.org 

www.etira.org 

ETIRA: WORKING FOR ALL REMANUFACTURERS AND PARTNERS 


June 2020 

45

NEXT ISSUE 

July 2020 

Issue 332 

Eyes on Africa 

- Progress, 

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ISSN 2045 - 2047 (PRINT) JUNE 2020 EDITION 331 PUBLISHED 29 MAY 2020 

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