Color laser printers market has increased this year, while the black and white laser printers market has slided against last year.A slowdown of the IT industry growth pace is also expected in 2009, on the backdrop of the global financial crisis, Helmut Ignat, general manager of printers producer Konica Minolta Romania tells Bucharest Herald.

BH: What investments has Konica Minolta Romania absorbed this year?

Helmut Ignat: This year we invested in the opening of new service centers through the country and in the development of the infrastructure to enhance the services quality.

BH: What is the evolution of the office equipment market this year compared to last year?

Helmut Ignat: In the first 3 trimesters of 2008, we noticed a slight drop of the black and white laser printers market, against last year, while the color laser printers market increased.The multifunctional laser copier based equipment market went up as well, followed by the black and white equippment market with a more temperate rise.

BH: How will all these markets, on which Konica Minolta is active, be affected by the financial crisis in 2009?

Helmut Ignat: The global financial crisis has started to impact negatively on the Romanian market as well, but it is yet to be seen how each sector will be affected. In the IT industry the growth pace, very dynamic in the past years, will probably slow down. The companies make more prudent investments.

BH: What Konica Minolta products have registered the higest sales volume this year?

Helmut Ignat: This year we focused more on office equippment and production printing segments. Our offer includes a complete range of multifunctional color laser equippment as companies have started to realize more the importance of color in the documents they produce. Moreover, as the daily activities generate more documents of various types, the clients chose complex solutions packages and software applications that target documents management, starting from software applications to sofisticated security systems.

BH: What turnover will the company post this year and what is the gowth target for 2009?

Helmut Ignat: Considering the recent uncertainity on the market and the slowdown of investments we estimate a turnover, at least equal to the turnover posted in 2007 and we target a a 10 per cent growth in 2009, but the evolution of the market is unpredictible.

BH: What is company’s market share at the moment?

Helmut Ignat: In the first 3 trimesters of 2008 the market kept the growth pace in the past years and Konica Minolta was leader on the multifunctional laser color copier-based market with a 43 per cent market share and a 19 per cent market share on multifunctional laser monochrome equippment.