BANGALORE
JANUARY 18, 2007

Epson India has appointed a new set of retail partners for its newly launched series of photo printers (which include Epson Stylus Pro 3850 Epson PictureMate PM210 equipped with the new Epson Claria Photo Lab system).

Around 150 of these 'photo' retail partners have been appointed all across India. According to S M Ramprasad, Manager, Consumer products, Epson India," Our photo printers are targeted at professional photographers and labs, and come equipped with 'claria' photographic inks. Therefore we have focused on appointing partners who have been selling photo (camera) accessories and there fore have the technical edge. Partners appointed for this product are required to do more than box selling. They need to have a passion to explain to the customer the feature benefits of the new product."

Thus far partners have been appointed in the metro and mini metro cities and Epson would look at class-B and -C cities at a later date. Epson has already begun the first level of training for its key partners on the new products and the next level of training is to begin very soon. As an additional plus, photo printers have been included into the channel partner incentive schemes announced from Epson this year.

"The returns and payoffs from the incentive schemes would get re-invested into the partner sub-activity," said Ramprasad while adding," Focusing on all-in-ones and stand alone systems this year around, we would continue to bring out more customer friendly products and focus on growth in the home and small office segments."

Among the new products in the pipeline from Epson are the soon to be launched 'Multimedia Storage Viewer'. This devise would help to store data - picture, music and video as well as view and print the same. A handheld devise this would be targeted at customers who are looking to store large data files, especially pictures and video. Set for a February launch, this product can be connected to a printer or PC as and when required. In addition to this product, Epson would also be ready with all in ones, which would come with higher speeds and additional features by September.

"Through our products we are attempting to consolidate on our market position and we would use our channel partners to help us get there. While one set of partners would continue to drive our volume products, the other group would help us in selling our technology and life style products so that we reach out effectively to our customers," Ramprasad added.

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