Gestetner practices what its printers preach

Gestetner has reinvented itself to such an extent that it now leads Xerox and Canon in the black-and-white printer market.

The claim comes from Nigel Palmer, Gestetner UK MD, who in an exclusive video interview with Silicon.com, also preaches the benefits of all-in-one machines that fax, scan, copy and print.

He insists: "People running the businesses and the IT experts are really keen on this type of product. It means they can have one type of product instead of several, it gets all the laser printers off desks, and they're much cheaper to run."

However, he also acknowledges some users have "an emotional attachment" to desktop printers.

He adds: "In fairness we have to consider that people are reluctant to give up the printer that sits only a metre away from their desk".

Palmer also concedes that inventing multipurpose machines is "the easy part" and support is much more difficult. However, he added that since Gestetner was bought by global giant Ricoh in 1996, that part of the equation has become easier to resolve.

The full video interview with Nigel Palmer is now available on Silicon.com's Document Management Channel.